Heaven Has Curves

A Luna Moonstone Story

By

Ana Lee Kennedy

Heaven Has Curves - Text copyright © Ana Lee Kennedy 2018

Editing and Cover Art by Emmy Ellis @ studioenp.com © 2018

All Rights Reserved

Heaven Has Curves is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and events are from the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

The author respectfully recognizes the use of any and all trademarks.

With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the author.

Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded, or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s written permission.

Chapter One

Luna Moonstone strode into Crater Bob’s and steeled herself for the numerous one-liners and abrasive advances she’d undoubtedly get in this dive. Not that she wouldn’t mind a wild fuck with someone interesting, but business came first. She had to stay focused on her job instead of allowing her inherent carnal nature take over. After all, if she let her duties as lead investigator for Universal Alliances slide, she’d never get caught up on work, nor would she ever hear the end of it from her superiors, especially Mr. Stellarman. As long as she stayed on top of all the money flows, the head honchos allowed her to do as she pleased, plus the salary was too good to pass up.

She paused at the edge of the lounge. Crater Bob’s was her least favorite check-in stop. She adored her fuck buddies and friends here, but the riotous bar scene, bright flickering lights, and loud, often annoying alien music, wore her down and gave her headaches. She loved a hard fuck with Friggly, but the sooner she met with him the sooner she could get the hell off this piece-of-shit freighter and move on to the next poor excuse for a planet, space station, or asteroid on her schedule. Once she stepped out into the fray of off-duty personnel, most of which were males, the battle of wits and pheromones would begin. It was the same at each post she had to visit. Her looks and body created turmoil among humans, physically compatible aliens, and even those who weren’t, such as the Insectoids and Reptilians, who would still hover around her until she wanted to open fire on them.

At that thought, Luna frowned. The last time she’d lost her temper had garnered her the nickname Lunatic. Hell, even though she’d been cleared of the charges, the name had stuck, and her reputation as a hard-nosed psychotic bitch now followed her throughout most galaxies.

She straightened her stance, placed her hand on the neurostun strapped under her boobs, and walked out into the middle of the tables scattered across the wide metallic floor.

As expected, a hulking humanoid stood and blocked her path. “Mmm-mmm! Boys, take a look at this piece of prime pussy,” the male said in stilted English. “I’m betting you’re a fifty-fifty, aren’t you?” He slid his hungry gaze down her body then back up. “Oh yeah. No question about it. Only a fifty-fifty could be so fucking tasty.” He grinned, but it looked more like an animal baring its fangs. “How about we find a quiet place and get to know each other? I’ve got two days off with nothing to do but drink and jack off. No point in wasting my”—he cupped himself, hefted his crotch, then released it—“big cocks when I can stuff your hole instead.”

Accustomed to the crudeness of most males, especially laborers and mineral dealers, she didn’t even blink an eye at his foul speech. Although Luna hadn’t seen a Fourpeck Fire Heathen before, she’d heard about them and how the race was struggling to save a slowly dying home planet. The ones who feared the worst were already infiltrating the Wavelength Galaxy to find jobs and establish homes elsewhere.

She stared up at the male. Fuck, he was a big one for sure. And she admitted he was easy on the eyes. Although obviously alien, he possessed many human characteristics. The brute stood toe to toe with her and boldly palmed her pussy. She remained unflinching despite the surge of desire that tingled in her cunt. It was an odd reaction for her since she liked to get to know a sexual partner before she got fired up. Maintaining her placid façade, Luna kept staring directly into his yellow eyes. Grinning even wider, he found the slot in the crotch of her shorts and tapped his finger against her exposed clit. The electrical zings his action shot through her folds and into her core almost unhinged her. If she started getting wet, he’d know he’d gotten to her, and her bold façade would be ruined. No way could she allow herself to be at the mercy of this huge, most likely well-hung, humanoid.

He slid his finger along the edge of the slit in her shorts, a smug smile tugging at the corners of his full lips. Luna gritted her teeth and thought about the disgusting male she’d encountered a week ago who’d smelled like rotted meat and looked like he hadn’t bathed in a year. He’d been all over her, and she’d had to take four baths before she’d felt clean. The memory gave her the resolve she needed, allowing her to keep her stoic expression in place.

“How about something sweet to eat and lick?” he asked, his stilted English more pronounced with his obvious lust.

She grabbed his massive wrist, her fingers barely curving around one side of it, and pushed his hand away. “Fuck off, peckerhead.”

The aliens and two humans at the table burst into laughter.

“I still say this one is a fifty-fifty,” he slurred. “Let’s wager. I’ll take top-price zips as well as minerals.”

Luna moved to one side and tried to pass the brute, but he shoved in front of her, his chest brushing her tits.

“Where do you think you’re going, bubbinyata?” He shifted his gaze from her face to her breasts. “Mmm, I’m gonna love coming between those two pretty pillows.”

His filthy way of talking further inflamed her desire. What the fuck was wrong with her? Frowning harder, she distracted herself by searching her memory for the meaning of the strange word he’d just used and decided it had to be part of the Fourpeck language. She glanced at the males around the table.

A human with a silver eye patch caught her questioning look. He waved a hand around by his head in a feeble attempt to pick the definition out of thin air. “Loosely translated—baby or sweet thing.” He laughed as though it was the funniest thing he’d ever said.

The huge Fourpeck nudged her chest with his. He leaned down and whispered, “I promise you’ll scream in pleasure.”

Goose flesh rippled down her neck and into her jacket. Her juices warmed the edges of her crotchless shorts. He couldn’t know he was arousing her. She took a step back.

“As nice as your offer is,” Luna replied calmly, masking her irritation, “I have business to handle, so please step aside.” She tightened her hand on the neuralstun’s grip.

He straightened slightly and stared at her as though he couldn’t believe she’d turned him down. Determination crossed his hard features, and his eyes shifted to an orange-red, brightening further with lust until tiny yellow flames, which matched his bright spiky hair, flickered around the irises. He placed one of his meaty hands on her waist and squeezed, shooting a spear of need straight to her core.

“I’ll even spring for the room,” he said.

“No, thank you.”

She tried to move away only to have him tighten his hold, keeping her chest to chest with him. With an irritated sigh, Luna slid the neuralstun free of its holster and pressed it into his iron-hard belly. His eyes widened, and most of the flickering flames vanished.

“I said no and I mean no,” she ground out. “Four hundred and ninety-two years after the Me Too era and there are still assholes who think females have to swoon at their feet in sexual submission. Fuck off and kindly let me pass because”—she smiled patiently as her next announcement would undoubtedly cause the Fourpeck to turn ashen—“I have a meeting with Friggly, and he’s very protective of Universal Alliances’ lead investigator.”

As she’d expected, the ruddy color drained from the Fourpeck’s face. The last few flames in his eyes extinguished, too. Friggly was a nice humanoid until someone got on his bad side. Shooting a violator out of a vent chute into the void was one of Friggly’s favorite methods of dealing with space shit. The Fourpeck kept looking at her as though she’d just fed him a bald-faced lie, then he blinked, released her, and stepped aside.

She barely glanced at him. “Thank you.”

As she sauntered away, the voice of one of the Fourpeck’s companions followed her. “So the bet’s off, then? Is she a fifty-fifty or not?”

“Shut the fuck up!” the Fourpeck roared.

Smirking, she dodged a tall, lanky Cerulean and a half-Reptilian and—she shivered—half something else she didn’t even want to contemplate. Heads turned as she passed. To deter any more lusty interceptors, she kept her weapon on display. The bartender at the front counter was a new one, but upon seeing a familiar human face at the rear bar, Luna threw her free hand up in greeting.

“Luna!” Crater Bob called in delight. “I’ve been wondering when you’d be back to go over Friggly’s records. How have you been?”

“Besides overworked, how do you think?” she countered.

“Chased, groped, fucked, and put away wet,” he stated.

She laughed, the throaty sound drawing many covetous looks from nearby males. “You certainly have a way with words, sweetie.” She favored Bob with a fond smile. “Do you have time for a drink later?”

Bob worshipped her body with attention that would make a virgin squirm. He lingered a little longer on Luna’s breasts, then, moving his attention over her shiny metallic blue shorts, her long legs, and the matching over-the-knee pirate-style boots, he nodded in satisfaction and met her eyes again. “I don’t mean to be rude, Luna, but as usual, you’re stunning.”

“And you’re a charmer, Bob.”

He actually had the decency to blush.

“I’ll see you in about an hour,” she said as she continued toward Friggly’s office.

At Friggly’s door, Luna didn’t bother to knock. She opened it and strode in to find the arrogant blue-skinned humanoid sitting at his desk. He didn’t even raise his head.

“You’re a little early, Luna,” he said in his scratchy voice.

“My last stop didn’t take long,” she replied and shut the door. “The station manager keeps excellent records.”

“I’m prepping our logs as we speak.” Friggly finally looked up from an image glimmering inside the desktop, his coal-black, almond-shaped eyes void of eyelids. His unblinking manner always unnerved her. “Let’s get this over with so we can enjoy other pleasantries.”

Inwardly, she groaned. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy sex with Friggly, but his ability to prolong ejaculation could be quite challenging for her. By the time he decided to come, she was usually raw. However, she had to admit the explosive orgasm was always worth it.

Friggly pinched either corner of the desk nearest to him then raised his arms, drawing a mirror image of the desktop up into the air where it hung suspended for Luna to observe. She stood about four feet away and indicated several figures, which immediately grew larger and separated from the main image. She withdrew a stylus from an inner jacket pocket then tapped the button on its side. The pen ejected a tiny blob of luminescent goo which quickly spread and turned transparent as it hung in midair. Luna pointed at one corner of it. Immediately numbers, names, destinations, final sums, and more information appeared in the ten-by-fourteen-inch rectangle.

Most business people bitched about the routine visits of a tax investigator, but what most taxpayers didn’t realize was that it was too damn easy for accountants to submit altered financial records to headquarters. An investigator was trained to watch body language, facial expressions, and to catch little nuances of the surrounding employees that hinted at tension or worry. Luna and her counterparts were licensed to question and arrest anyone who was guilty of any form of monetary fraud as well as subduing anyone who fought her or tried to evade arrest. Friggly was a crook, of that there was no doubt, but she’d never caught anything shady in his bookkeeping for Crater Bob.

She compared figures and nodded. “Sales are up, but you know what that means.”

“Higher fucking taxes,” Friggly growled. “Like I’m surprised.”

“I’m just doing my job, sweetie,” she said. “I don’t agree with the tax procedures and laws of Universal Alliances any more than you do.”

After a good half hour of discussing figures and new cash flows for Crater Bob’s, Luna saved air copies of Friggly’s records then ended the transmission. She reduced the screen to a tiny blob again then used the pen to suck it out of the air. After she returned the pen to its pocket, she waited for Friggly to shut down the images glowing in the air around them.

He stood, revealing what could only be a new zote fur duster and matching zote suede slacks, his smooth blue chest peeking through the open coat front. He walked around the desk to stand in front of her and uttered a word in his language she didn’t recognize. By the way he’d said it, she guessed it was his foul way of stating his appreciation of her. “I can’t get enough of your pussy,” he said. “I know you’re probably sick of fucking me, and I know I shouldn’t take such liberties for granted, but I’d be an idiot if I didn’t enjoy your body every chance I get.”

Unbroken eye contact was a Blugavian’s way of connecting to his or her sexual partner, but all it did was wig Luna out. She dreaded having to stare into Friggly’s unblinking black-as-pitch eyes. “Do you have to look at me this time?”

He stared at her. Somehow, she detected a hint of disappointment in his big, glassy orbs.

“Since you’re always such a good sport,” he answered, “how about I bend you over my desk?”

She smiled, heat flashing into her cunt. “Wonderful!”

She shucked her jacket, unstrapped her gun holster, and placed it on the transparent desk, then braced her palms on its edge and presented her ass to him.

“If I can’t look at you,” Friggly said, “then I want to see your scrumptious ass. Shorts off. Now.”

His gruff command sent a frisson of excitement through her. Quickly, she shimmied out of the garment, kicked them aside, then shoved her ass toward him again as she leaned over the desk.

“Great fucking orbiting planets!” Friggly approached her and placed a hand on either of her butt cheeks. “I know you’ve probably heard it a million times, but I’ve seen a few fifty-fifties, and you’re the most beautiful of them all.”

“I never tire of flattery, Frig,” she said in her best throaty come-hither voice. “Now fuck me. I have an itch that needs a good—hard—scratching.”

The ripping sound of loosening adhesives stoked the flames heating her loins. As a fifty-fifty, Luna enjoyed lots of sex—copious amounts of sex—and thanked her lucky stars each time she didn’t have to worry about disease or an unwanted pregnancy. Over a century ago a mineral was discovered on Rekar 9 that killed all bacteria and viruses tied to sex. Each newborn human and alien received the vaccination immediately after birth so it had time to build in the recipient’s body and protected the inoculated once he or she became sexually active. When Luna was fourteen, her mother had taken her to receive the reproduction suppressant. Children were planned, and a license had to be purchased for each new baby conceived, which was done in laboratories. Accidents resulted in incredible fines and even possible prison time.

Slowly, Luna became aware of the bass penetrating the walls. Lulls punctuated the ikto tune, indicating the sections where strange tinny and pinging noises took the place of lyrics. The younger crowd loved nikto music, so the evening frivolities had definitely begun. The bass rose a third time until it vibrated the desk, the sensation titillating Luna’s body. Friggly muttered something in his native tongue as he smoothed his palms around and around her ass cheeks. Blugavians maintained a lower body temperature, so his cool skin on her butt gave her a little jolt at first, but the more he caressed her, the more his skin adapted to her temperature.

“Ready for me?” he asked.

“Impatient is more like it.”

He chuckled, the sound reminding her of two rough pieces of metal rubbing together. He touched the top of her ass crack with the head of his cock.

“Mmph.” She pushed back in anticipation.

“My, you are impatient,” he said, laughing again.

This time he drew the tip of his cock down the crack of her ass, pushing in slightly here and there as he pulled it down her cleft to her pussy. She couldn’t wait to feel his cock inside her. She’d walk funny for a couple days after this, but the Fourpeck had stirred a need in her that she hadn’t experienced in a few weeks. Maybe Friggly could fuck it away.

“You’re very wet.” Friggly smacked her butt, eliciting a gasp from her. “In fact, you’re so wet we don’t need any lube.”

“Frig!”

“Oh, all right. If you truly insist,” he teased.

He drew his cock back up her ass crack, poking between her butt cheeks in a couple of places. For a moment she thought he was going to insist on anal intercourse, which she enjoyed, too, but the last time she’d engaged in an ass fuck with Friggly, she couldn’t sit for nearly a week unless she leaned on one hip or the other. He stopped at the top of her butt, let his cock, hard and insistent, rest there for a moment, then he leaned forward, squashing their bodies together. He slipped his cool hands around her and pressed the sensor that released the clear bra encasing her tits.

“I must fondle these beauties while I fuck you,” he stated. “They give me something to hold on to so you don’t get away from me.”

“Frig, please!” She wiggled her hips to entice him. Her nipples hardened under his cool palms, the tips ultrasensitive. He massaged her boobs for a moment, the sensation relaxing her. “I need fucked, so quit teasing me.”

He leaned back, and cold air swirled between their bodies. Goosebumps peppered Luna’s skin. He slid his cock against her pussy where he held the tip until she growled in frustration. Knowing what would be his undoing, she lay across his desk so her ass tilted upward and he’d have a clear view of her hairless dyed pussy.

“Fuck!” he whispered and shoved into her.

“Ohhh!” At the abrupt intrusion, Luna boosted herself onto her forearms, bracing for his pummeling assault. He filled her up, the head of his cock hitting her cervix. “Oh, that feels nice.”

He thrust in and out of her, the pat-pat-pat of his pelvis striking her ass the only noise aside from the booming bass and their grunts of pleasure. Luna pushed back as much as she could, using her toes to raise herself just enough to meet each one of his thrusts. Friggly liked total penetration, his cock buried balls deep, before withdrawing until her pussy lips barely held on to his cockhead, then he’d drive all the way to the hilt into her again. She loved the sensation of the repetitive impaling, his cool rod warming from her body heat, and the vigorous way he pumped into her. The itch inside her faded, replaced by the tightening of her core until she whimpered with the need to come. Still, Friggly thrust into her. He pulled all the way out to hold still for an instant, his cockhead just on the verge of separating from her cunt, then plunged all the way in again. Each time she moaned, he let out a grunt that inflamed her senses a level higher.

Luna pushed farther up on her forearms, her big, heavy boobs swaying with each of Friggly’s pumps. He bent over her, his cock buried deeply, his sweat mingling with the perspiration prickling her back, and slipped his hands around her to cup each mound of flesh. He flicked their nubs with his thumbnails. Sensation pierced her core.

“Oh! Frig!”

He did it again.

“Oh, sweetie…” she cooed and spread her legs wider.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck… The things you do to me, Luna.”

He pushed into her again and squeezed her boobs so hard it hurt. The pain only inflamed Luna’s desire. She issued a long, lusty groan and turned lax on the desktop, the side of her face flat on the transparent surface, and let Friggly have his way with her. He drove into her faster, harder. Luna prepared herself for the orgasm building inside her, knowing that despite her completion Friggly would keep thrusting until she orgasmed a second and probably a third time, too, leaving her sated but thoroughly used up.

Her juices increased as she neared completion. The squish and suck noises preceded the aroma of sex permeating the office. The coil deep within Luna tightened more and more. Grunts and moans tumbled freely from her lips, melding with Friggly’s gruff sounds.

Sweat slicked her body and sheened the desktop beneath her. Soon, each of Friggly’s thrusts also slid her back and forth on the surface until irritation seared her skin.

“Fr-Frig, I can’t take any more, sweetie.”

“Just a little longer.”

“I can’t. You’re rubbing my skin off on your desk!”

He pumped into her even faster, the ferocity of his movements jolting her on the slippery surface until she wondered if she’d go rocketing over the other side of the desk. Despite the irritation of her chest and belly, the coil in her lower abdomen screwed another notch tighter. Fluttering grew stronger in her passage. She whined in pleasure. Frig stopped abruptly, his cock hardening a bit more inside her before cool spunk filled her, simultaneously pushing her over the edge of pleasure. The orgasm took her by surprise, and she screamed. The perspiration slicking her body and coating the desktop prevented her from fully raising her ass higher. She wanted Friggly’s cock to go even deeper as she rode out her orgasm. He seemed to understand what she desired and hoisted her hips. He pounded into her, and she moaned, allowing him to work her pussy until it would undoubtedly be raw. His stamina was impressive. When sex with Friggly was this amazing, who was she to complain about a little soreness later?

Chapter Two

As was always the case, Friggly insisted Luna use his misting compartment in his personal quarters before going on her way. Refreshed, she powdered herself to ease the friction burns on her torso then found a pair of crotchless shorts in Friggly’s wardrobe she’d left there from last month’s check-in. She stepped into them and drew the garment up over her hips. Luckily, they matched her boots. Once she’d holstered her boobs, donned her gun, and slipped into her jacket, she whipped her hair around and around until it formed a thick rope, wrapped it about the ebony stick she always secured it with then pushed the stick through the wad of still-damp, red-and-black streaked hair on the back of her head. She’d tried many times to cut her long hair, but it always reached its original length within a week, so she’d given up and simply kept it secured and out of her way.

When she exited Friggly’s apartment, he’d already gone for the night. Although her boobs stung from rubbing against the desktop, the friction burn hadn’t convinced Friggly to go easy on her as she’d asked. It would have been nice to walk away from him without a chafed pussy or sore muscles, but the discomfort also reminded her she’d been thoroughly fucked.

Back in Crater Bob’s, she headed straight for the counter Bob tended and found him off duty at the end of the bar nursing his favorite drink, Mars Moonshine, over frozen synthetic asparagus. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. He raised his glass to her.

“Just whiskey over mineral ice,” she said.

Bob gave her order to the nightshift barkeep.

“Why do you look so worried since I left you?” she asked, concerned.

“I just caught a couple guys peddling Fe-adrene.”

“You do realize that there are a few females who come in here?”

“Obviously,” he replied in exasperation, “but from what I hear it’s a problem throughout the Alliances.”

“Only parts of the Alliances,” she told him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Haven’t you heard? Fe-adrene has been legalized on most planets and space stations?”

“Why the fuck would the Universal Alliances legalize that shit?” Incredulous, he stared at her.

“From what I understand, it’s so females of all races have the ability to protect themselves. There are too many females captured and sold as slaves on Earth and Mars. Theirs is the only galaxy left that doesn’t utilize freedom of sex. Human trafficking is a huge business, and there’s big money to be made by selling slaves to those planets.”

She paused as the bartender set a glass in front of her. He dropped a couple of mineral ice chunks into the tumbler, followed by what looked like a large amber pill. The instant the pill hit the minerals, it melted, and filled the glass with whiskey.

Once he’d walked away, Luna continued. “Fe-adrene doesn’t do anything except give females the physical strength to fight males, whether through hand-to-hand combat, fist fights, or whatever the situation.”

“I don’t like the idea of getting the odd humanoid woman in here who’s unruly and my bouncers having their asses handed to them if she doesn’t feel like cooperating. Then the next thing that will happen is a lawsuit against my establishment.” He sipped his drink, glowering at the muted colors pulsing on the back wall with the bass. “I heard a group of miners were attacked and killed by females strung out on Fe-adrene.”

“That was debunked,” she said. “No such thing happened. You know how news gets blown out of proportion by the time it goes from one galaxy to the next.”

“I guess.”

“So…” She tiptoed her fingertips up Bob’s spine. “Is our private booth ready?”

“You mean Friggly didn’t have his way with you?”

His belligerent tone struck her as if he’d actually slapped her. “What the fuck is your problem tonight, Bob?”

“You know it makes me crazy that Friggly fucks you every time you arrive to go over our books.” He kept his gaze on the swirling colors in front of him.

“How many times do we have to go over this, sweetie?” she tried soothing him. “I’m not wife or mate material. I like sex because it’s my nature, so I couldn’t stop it anyway. I’m—”

“Fifty percent human and fifty percent Lustonian.” He shot her a sidelong glance so full of hurt she winced. “I’m well aware of what you are, Luna. You’re the exception to society’s rules, conceived through a Luston wanting to share and give something beautiful to your mother. You are the product of an otherworldly being that is not subject to Alliance laws, and you are a creature of epic sexual appetites. However, it doesn’t make me feel any better about Friggly or any other of your sexual partners.” He rose, drink in one hand, and held his other out to her.

Luna picked up her whiskey and took his hand.

“Luna! It’s been so long!”

Groaning, she flicked a disgruntled look at Bob, who rolled his eyes.

“I thought that waitress worked the dayshift?” she said.

“She’s filling in for someone who called off tonight.”

A tiny Ripstinger rushed up to Luna. The little humanoid woman fluttered her neck wings in excitement. She bounced from one bare foot to the other over and over, her little breasts jiggling as though electrified. She continued bouncing until Luna had to fight the urge to place her hand on top of her head to hold the girl still. Translucent black curls swirled around the Ripstinger’s face, her brilliant green eyes aglow with interest. Her nostrils flared in an otherwise nearly nonexistent nose. “Why haven’t you stopped in to say hello, Luna? Where have you been? Still working as lead investigator? Have you seen Friggly yet? He fucks like a champion, doesn’t he? Do you have any exciting news to—”

Luna could never remember the young female’s name, nor did she really care to know it. She’d encountered the Ripstinger a few months ago when Luna’s schedule had her arriving on the freighter during mid-afternoons, but since she’d picked up one more case to monitor, she no longer intercepted the freighter until early evening so she hadn’t dealt much with the little speed-crazed humanoid until now. She was likeable, but the way she talked, walked, and did everything as though she were moving at warp nine drove Luna insane, but then it was the nature of all Ripstingers.

“Have you seen a Fourpeck Fire Heathen yet?” the waitress chattered on. “There are two here tonight, but one is really big and really handsome. I hear the males have four peckers. Do you think that’s true?” She blinked curiously at Luna, but before Luna could answer, the girl rushed into another spiel. “If the males are Fourpecks, do the females have four boobs? Or maybe it’s four pussies.” She shook her head, tittering crazily. “No, what the fuck would you do with four pussies? I mean—”

“Sweetie, I don’t have time to chat right now,” Luna said, waving. “Maybe we can talk later.”

The Ripstinger smiled from ear to ear. Oh no. That could only mean she’d taken Luna seriously. Now she’d never get out of Crater Bob’s without at least having one drink with the maniacal speedster.

“Okay,” the little humanoid crowed. “Sounds good. Don’t leave without telling me goodbye. Maybe we can have a drink. My shift is over in two hours. And don’t you dare try to slip out without me seeing you, Luna!”

“Fuck,” Luna whispered. She waved the girl away, allowing Bob to lead her to the private booths on the right side of the joint. The Ripstinger had planted a seed of interest in her brain. A Fourpeck Fire Heathen had four cocks? She’d never really contemplated what Fourpeck meant until now, but surely it was one of the dozens of alien physiology myths that floated around the unified galaxies? Still, the idea of four large and very hard cocks on one incredibly buff human or humanoid was worth further consideration.

A heavy layer of mineral smoke hung in the air. By the time they’d waded through the tables without a vacant seat to be seen and had pushed through the area where gaming tables hosting everything from Earth poker to Slicing Snocks, Luna had inhaled enough mineral mist to float two feet off the floor. They passed wall-to-wall bodies crammed along ten-foot-long lanes for Slicing Snocks, the gaming daggers whizzing across the polished surfaces so fast Luna could barely track them.

Next to the lanes, the Fourpeck who had stopped her earlier caught Luna’s attention. He raked his gaze over her. In response, heat pooled in her cunt. Fuck, what was it about the big oaf that turned her on so easily? Perhaps his four steely pricks? No, he couldn’t possibly have four cocks, could he? She fought to keep her expression neutral. Once he shifted his gaze to Bob, he then made the connection with the private booth. The Fourpeck’s lustful gaze shifted into anger. The dark fury on his face thrilled Luna. Well, it served him right for being such an asshole to her earlier. It was one thing to approach someone for sex, it was quite another to be an unrelenting dick about it.

She ignored the Fourpeck and concentrated on walking a reasonably straight line behind Bob, her hand still clutched in his. An alien with glittery metallic green skin reached for his dagger on the Slicing Snocks lane only to lose a finger when he didn’t retrieve the blade fast enough. He howled with pain, white blood spurting and pattering on the lane’s chrome edge. A game medic pushed through the players to the alien and bandaged his hand, but a new digit was already growing from the stub. The other players hooted with glee at the point scored.

Luna shook her head. She’d never understand the need males had to maim each other. Unbalanced, she staggered against Bob’s back as he stopped to unlock the booth.

He eyed her worriedly. “You okay?”

“I think so.” She held one hand up, index finger indicating the low-lying cloud over the place. “Aren’t you high, too?”

“Once you’re in the mineral mist for a while, you get used to the second-hand smoke.” He helped her into the booth then shut and locked the door behind them. “I’ll set out the stuff for our drinks.”

Bob stood in front of a liquor cabinet built into one wall. He touched a sensor, and a counter slid out of it. As he selected the contents that made up his drink and set them out, Luna unzipped her boots then shucked the rest of her meager clothing. She unfastened the neurostun and placed it on the table. Other than the possibility of four raging cocks, something about the Fourpeck had stirred her blood again. Lust coursed through her so stringently that saliva gathered in her mouth. Swallowing noisily, she arranged herself on the lounger end of the booth, pulled her knees up, then let them drop to either side, and slid her fingers into her pussy, enveloping them in the wet warmth of her body. With her other hand, she cupped one of her big tits. Stroking herself, she hitched her breath as the nerve endings in her box buzzed with sensation. She had no interest in the Fourpeck, so why did she suddenly have the need to fuck each time she laid eyes on him? Friggly had served a purpose earlier, and although she knew Bob was emotionally attached to her, she couldn’t help using him to sate her craving for more cock. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

“There isn’t any of your brand stocked in this booth,” Bob was saying, “but there is some stout Event Horizon. No idea how that brew ended up in this joint”—he spun on his heel to face her, his attention instantly on her exposed cunt—“unless a wealthy client left it here...”

She offered him her most potent fuck-me smile. Bob had a thing for her painted pussy. Thinking of him before embarking on the shuttle here, she’d had it dyed fuchsia and teal, Bob’s favorite colors. By his expression, his mouth ajar, he was more than pleased.

“I’m all showered, powdered, and I smell good,” she said. As he stood gawking, she decided he was probably the best-looking human guy she’d seen in the Wavelength Galaxy. So why didn’t she give him a chance to win her heart? As she pumped her fingers in and out of herself, the tingling in her pussy gave her the answer—she craved sex too much. “Why don’t you come over here and play with me?”

“The mineral smoke must’ve really gotten to you,” he said. “You’re usually all ‘let’s fuck so I can be on my way’ but now you act like you can’t wait to be with me.”

Cast in the soft bluish light emitted from the booth walls, he provided a striking image. The illumination in his salt-and-pepper hair created glistening strands of bright silver. He tugged his barkeep shirt over his head, his broad shoulders scarred so badly from a burn it had earned him the nickname of Crater Bob. He’d refused to have cosmetic surgery, claiming he’d earned the scars and wasn’t about to give them up. Luna found the mottled, pitted scarring sexy as hell. It gave him the appearance of a tough space warrior who had seen many battles. He’d had a rough life, and changing how he looked would mean he was ashamed of his past.

At the thought, something shifted in Luna. Her heart clenched then sped up. Before she could analyze the sensation, Bob dropped to his knees at the end of the lounger, grabbed her by her hips, and jerked her to the edge of the seat.

“You might not have feelings for me, Luna,” he said quietly, the nikto music pulsing through the booth door, “but I’ll take you any way I can have you.”

She started to say something, anything to change the strange mood between them, but Bob silenced her by tugging on her hand. When she let go of herself, he leaned over, gripping her thighs, and sucked her clit between his lips.

“Oh!” She arched off the cushions, her insides quivering with sensation.

He chuckled, the sound buzzing her labia and forcing a string of uninterpretable words from her lips as she tried to clutch at his head, his hair slipping through her fingers. He pushed his tongue into her hole and imitated the motions of a cock. Luna lifted her hips higher, cries erupting from her. Bob kept thrusting his tongue in and out. She wanted more, wanted to have his rod deep inside her, needed to have it.

He kept sucking at her folds then switched his mouth maneuvers and drew her clit between his lips. He flicked it several times with the tip of his tongue. Electrical sparks shot through her to land in her core.

“Oh fuck!” she gasped, arching again.

Bob hooked an arm over her pelvis to hold her down and continued drawing on her clit.

“Oh… Damn… Fuck…”

She kept trying to buck, but he held her still.

He nipped her clit with his teeth, and she squealed, pleasure-pain skewering her.

“I love it when you dye your pussy,” he said, finally releasing her. “It’s fucking sexy. Next time I see you, I want you to have it painted with a colorful galaxy. Have the crotch artist use his or her imagination. Surprise me and”—he drew his tongue up her folds—“delight me with something unique.”

“Bob...” She squeezed her eyes shut. “You’re driving me crazy, baby.”

“That’s the idea,” he said, laughing.

His chuckles vibrated her pussy, and she huffed in pleasure. The coil inside her twisted tighter, tighter… She gulped and opened her eyes. “Are you going to fuck me or not?

“Maybe I will. Maybe I won’t.”

“What?” She raised her head to look down at him.

“Maybe I want you to pine for me,” he said, gazing back at her.

“Bob, please don’t leave me like this. Put that big cock of yours inside me. Make me come hard.”

“Lay back and relax, beautiful.”

Satisfied that he was going to pleasure her the way she wanted, she mewled in protest as he slipped two fingers into her and scissored them a few times.

“No,” she whined. “I want your cock.”

“Patience my lovely,” he replied.

He slid a third then a fourth finger into her. She groaned at the intrusion, but it still wasn’t his dick. She wanted him steely and throbbing inside her, but when he pumped his hand a few times, she found herself meeting his finger thrusts. After seven or eight times, he withdrew his fingers.

“Bob, no—”

“Shush!” he ordered.

His uncharacteristic stern tone both startled her and inflamed her senses. She stared down at him expectantly, her knees gaped open as far as they’d go.

“You’re going to ride my hand,” he told her, “and I’m going to feel you orgasm around it.”

She widened her eyes. Fisting? She hadn’t let anyone fist her in years.

He stood suddenly and faced the liquor cabinet. He picked up a liquor pellet then leaned over Luna, placing it on her lips.

“Take it.”

She let it hit the moisture of her mouth. The pill exploded, and she immediately relaxed her throat to allow the fiery Event Horizon to course down her esophagus. Flames assailed her throat, then, upon reaching her stomach, the booze detonated. She gasped at the sudden heat.

He placed another one on her lips. “One more. You have to be totally relaxed for this.”

She nodded, tears stinging her eyes from the liquor’s vapors, and opened her mouth, her throat lax to accept the whiskey that immediately burst upon landing on her tongue. Once she swallowed, she held her breath to keep air from fanning the fire that scorched her throat. The whiskey exploded in her belly.

“Now lie back and let me take care of you, Luna,” Bob commanded.

Chapter Three

The Event Horizon hurtled through her bloodstream, relaxing her limbs, her loins pounding with need, body sweating from the potent brew. Thoughts of what Bob was going to do to her tantalized Luna. Would he fist her for a while then let her have completion with his cock buried to the hilt inside her? The very thought had her licking her lips, which burned with the residual booze.

He resumed licking her pussy, his tongue rough and hot. Pins and needles of delight arced through her to settle in her core. She wanted to arch off the lounger, the feelings so intense, but the brew had relaxed her until she could only lie still as he face-fucked her.

She let needy cries and whimpers slip free as he filed his tongue into one fold, around her clit to nudge her hood with his nose, then down along the fold on the opposite side to end just below her opening. Her cry of impatience quickly turned to a shriek of passion upon finding him jabbing her hole with his tongue. His hot breath heated her pussy. In response, her juices flowed.

“Oh…fuck me, Bob…”

As he thrust his tongue in and out of her hole, he inserted a thick finger.

“Oh…”

Then he slid in a second, followed by a third without slowing his tongue. The intrusion of his digits as he kept up the tongue action urged more need to tighten in her belly, and her nipples hardened painfully. She placed her hands over her boobs and rubbed them vigorously, the dual sensation forcing her to hump his face and fingers.

Why was she so sensitized? What about Bob was making her crazy? They’d fucked dozens of times, so why was this instance so different?

He wiggled two more fingers into her, the squelching sound of his ministrations both sloppy and wonderful to Luna’s ears. About to hump his face harder, she gasped in disappointment when he once again removed his fingers. He looked up at her from between her legs, his face wet from her fluids.

“Are you ready for this?” he asked.

“Bob, if I don’t come soon I might explode—literally.”

He laughed. “Good.”

He placed his fisted hand against her pussy lips and pushed gently.

“Your fist is too big,” she said, panicking.

“Not if you relax. Do you want another pellet?”

“Yes.”

He rose, retrieved another amber pellet, and set it on her lips. Once she’d opened her mouth for the explosion of whiskey and swallowed it, the heat and lethargy relaxed her further. It had been a while since she’d been fisted, but she could do this. Oddly enough, she now found the idea highly exciting, and her passage quivered in anticipation.

Somehow the whiskey she’d consumed heightened the pinging of the nikto tune which was followed by crushing bass. She let herself meld with the cushions, eager for Bob’s touch.

He pressed his fist to her pussy a second time and pressed, working his knuckles into her. She gasped, the pain immediate, but Bob paused and let her adjust to the intrusion. Again he moved his hand farther into her body, which opened to him, molding around his flesh.

“Oh fuck! I feel so full!”

“I don’t even have my fist all the way in you yet,” he replied.

“Mmph…” She wiggled her ass, moving more of him into her vagina. “Oh fuck. This feels crazy, weird, and fantastic all at the same time.”

He continued forcing his fist into her, the intrusion now delightful. She wanted to move, wanted to hump his hand so hard that he cried out.

“I’m all the way in, baby. You’re fluttering around my hand.”

He pumped his fist a couple of times. Sensation burst through Luna. She arched her entire body, startling a grunt out of Bob, her head back, throat to the ceiling as she let out a warbling scream. He twisted his fist from one side to the other. Another cry ripped from Luna. Slowly, he pushed his hand in a bit more. She tensed as wave after wave of euphoria rippled through her, then she relaxed, allowing her thighs to lay nearly flat on the cushions. As the coil in her continued tightening, she suddenly bucked her hips. The dam within her exploded, and she arched off the lounger a second time, head back, and screamed long and loud. Bob let out a cry that sounded as though he’d come, too.

Her strength abandoned her. The liquor she’d consumed continued to work its magic in her bloodstream, and she turned lax on the seat, panting laboriously.

“Easy now, baby,” he said. “Let me withdraw my hand. Just relax.”

Gently, he removed his fist from her body, leaving her suddenly empty but incredibly sated.

Luna left the booth. She straightened her jacket and made sure her weapon was firmly attached. Most of the bar patrons had shifted over to the hover screen in the opposite corner where the last round of a drone war was beaming in. Shouts and hoots of those rooting for their favorite drones rose above the music.

Behind her, Bob shut the door and locked it. He’d send in a cleaning crew to scour and disinfect the room. Although he was a great businessman, his clients liked him for other reasons, too—he ran an exceptionally clean establishment. Luna made her way through the tables and chairs. Bob placed a hand on the small of her back and helped guide her through the jumbled furniture.

He hadn’t said but a couple of sentences to her since she’d orgasmed. She’d thought he’d let her relax then fuck her on the lounger. Instead, he’d risen to wash his face and hands at the sink then proceeded to put everything at the liquor cabinet away and wipe off its bar. When she’d asked Bob about sex, he’d simply said he wouldn’t make love to her again until she truly wanted him. Still confused, she glanced over at him, but he kept his face neutral. She wanted him now, wanted to fuck like two horny ice bunnies from the planet Blanc, so what the hell was Bob’s problem?

She paused to ask him about it. Upon staring into Bob’s eyes, Luna couldn’t find the words. Something was different in his gaze. He was determined, and, looking deeper still, the expression in them was so deeply rooted it frightened her. A tender smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

“Yes?” he said.

“I was—”

“Oh, Luna! There you are!” the Ripstinger waitress called.

“Shit.”

Bob’s smiled turned into a smirk.

“I’ve waited two hours for you,” the little waitress began, excitement practically oozing out of her. “So, can we have that drink now? I’ll buy. I like the fruity ones with the little drones that hover on the vapors. What do you like? I bet it’s something stout, right? Whiskey. Am I right? Come on, let’s—”

“What is your name?” Luna wanted to sit on the little woman. Better that than to stomp on her feelings. “I don’t even know what to call you.”

The attention startled the waitress, who offered Luna a huge smile. She rattled off some words that gave Luna a headache.

“All that gibberish is your name, huh?” Luna said. When Bob chuckled, she pressed an elbow gently to his ribs. “How about I give you a name?”

The Ripstinger jumped up and down several times. “That would be amazing. Never had someone give me a name before. I bet you’ll choose a pretty one. What is it? Tell me!”

“I’ll let you know next time I come into the bar,” Luna said, hoping to make her getaway.

“No! You have to tell me now! Come on, Luna.” She flapped her neck wings so fast they blurred. “Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell—”

Frustrated, Luna snapped a hand out and over on the tiny woman’s mouth. “Exercise self-restraint.”

The Ripstinger nodded vigorously. “Mmph-hmph.”

Luna couldn’t help rolling her eyes. She shut them, gathering her resolve not to blow up and verbally strip the woman to the bare bones.

“I’ll have one drink with you—one,” Luna stated, holding up her index finger. She kept her gaze on the woman’s inky eyes to drive home her point. “Then I must leave for my next check-in point, understand?”

The waitress nodded, slower this time.

Luna took her hand away and followed the woman to the bar. Walking behind the waitress and standing nearly three feet taller than she was, Luna felt as though she were herding a child.

At the counter, they ordered, and Bob made their drinks. The entire time, the Ripstinger chattered about how she’d idolized Luna since hearing about her adventures when she was still part of Universal Alliances’ DEA.

“I was so thankful you weren’t charged for that shooting incident,” she said, staring up at Luna with wide eyes. “I would have just curled up and died if that would’ve happened. I mean it! Curled. Up. And. Died!”

She jabbered on and on. Luna made appropriate noises so the waitress would think she was paying close attention to what she was saying. Behind the bar, Bob tossed her amused looks and laughed from time to time. Luna glowered back at him.

“I have an idea,” the Ripstinger said. “Let me be your personal assistant?”

“No,” Luna replied, panicked.

“Oh, please! Please? Please?”

“No. Besides, the UA office wouldn’t allow it.” There. Luna drew in a deep breath then let it out. That should put an end to the situation. “I get into some really scary predicaments, things you shouldn’t be exposed to.”

The waitress beamed at her and wiggled on the stool. “Oh, that’s sweet of you, but—”

“How about I pay her to help you?” Bob interjected. “She’ll still be working for me, but as an assistant instead of a bar waitress. I’ll even bump her salary up.”

Horrified, Luna whipped her head toward him. “I don’t think this a good idea.”

“I do! I do!”

“Please sit still,” Luna said without sparing the Ripstinger a glance.

“Seriously, Luna,” Bob said as he wiped down the bar. “Most high-profile employees today have personal assistants who also double as bodyguards.” When she straightened and shot him a pissed-off look he held up his hands, the disinfectant towel dangling from his left one. “I know you can hold your own, Luna. After all, you kick major ass, but having someone there who can help you with all the strings you’re constantly running to catch up with would take a hell of a lot of stress off you.”

He smiled, staring directly into her eyes. Something deep inside Luna responded and surprised her by sending prickles to the backs of her eyes.

He blinked, breaking the contact, and opened a vacuum-sealed packet of whiskey pellets. Shrugging, he added, “I’d feel better if I knew someone trustworthy was watching out for your gorgeous backside.”

“No, Bob. Just…no.” She put all her feelings about his idea into her facial expression.

He smiled wider. “Come on, Luna. Someone to keep your appointments straight for you. Someone who can do everything from setting out your clothes to making or buying your meals, and someone to keep an objective stance while heading off possible problems when you’re otherwise occupied. Remember Harvey Hailstorm?”

How could she forget the thug she’d sent to prison for heisting Freighter Lines’ zips? She’d been immersed in working with Friggly on some money missing from the bar. Harvey had barely been paroled and was buying cheap fare on freighters on his way to his home planet on the other side of the Wavelength Galaxy. He’d heard Luna was also on the freighter and working with Friggly. Somehow the thug had walked right through the bar and into Friggly’s office without anyone noticing. If it wasn’t for Bob keeping a security orb behind the bar and seeing him enter with the laser knife, Harvey would have slit both their throats while they were standing in front of the hover screen.

“Pleeeaaase, Luna!”

Luna cringed.

“I promise if you let me work for you”—the Ripstinger fidgeted with barely suppressed expectation—“I’ll try very hard not to be so hyper.”

Luna shifted her attention to the tiny woman. “Is that even possible?”

“I’ll do my damndest to work on it.”

The hope in the Ripstinger’s eyes dissolved Luna’s resolve. “Oh…fuck! All right, but you will do as I say, understand?”

The little assistant-to-be squealed in delight. “Thank you! Thank you!” She wrapped her arms around Luna’s waist and squeezed. “This is a dream come true!”

“Okay, okay!” Pulling away, Luna pushed her new helper back up on the stool. “First rule—no hugging.”

“Got it.” Her new assistant grinned so wide, Luna’s jaws ached just looking at her.

As she stared at the tiny ball of energy masquerading as an alien woman, a name for her formed in Luna’s mind. The Ripstinger was tiny, maybe four feet tall, and she jabbered nonstop, wiggling, jumping, and moving quickly so that it was exhausting to watch her. However, she was a pretty little thing, too. Delicate, even. A mark of deception and a trait of Ripstingers. Few knew the secrets hidden within this tiny, neck-winged race. Yes, this name for her new personal would suit perfectly.

“I’ll call you Petunia,” Luna told her with a firm nod. “‘Pet’ for short.”

Petunia squealed again, and Bob let out a bark of loud laughter.

“I love it,” Pet said, reaching to hug Luna again but catching herself. She kicked her tiny feet several times in happiness. “I absolutely love it.”

“You can pick up your pay when Luna makes her stops here,” Bob told Pet. “Or I can zip it to you if you prefer.”

“Go ahead and zip it to me,” Pet said. She looked at Luna. “I’ll gather my things, which isn’t much, and meet you back here in fifteen.”

Luna nodded, suddenly exhausted. “I’ll be here.”

Pet leaped off the stool and hurried through the crowd of still-hollering patrons.

“I’ll get you for this, Bob,” Luna muttered.

His mirth drew the attention of several nearby customers.

Chapter Four

Bertha Katherine Bendlight AKA Bodacious Bertha hated Luna Moonstone. The tax investigator was gorgeous, intelligent, and totally insufferable. The last thing she wanted to do today was cater to Universal Alliances’ lead tax investigator. The thought of that woman strutting into her office to check her records made her want to beat the next man who walked into her boudoir. Instead, she tried to focus on the newscast flickering on the wall across from her.

“What’s happening on that new moon discovered in the Crab Galaxy?” Bertha asked Keet to distract herself.

“It seems that while using zinvaste to separate ore the miners hit a small, undetected pocket of Fe-adrene,” Keet explained. “There is much ice inside the moon as well, so the equipment thawed it in the shafts, activating the zinvaste, which interacted with the Fe-adrene pocket. Two have died from the toxin, but the rest of the crew was evacuated before they attacked one another.”

“Dipshits,” Bertha groused. “You’d think with the new detectors available they’d be more careful about using that zinvaste shit in ore mining.”

“Those new detectors are so expensive the small mining companies can’t afford them,” Keet stated. “Most of the little moons are mined by small companies. When miners are hired, they’re forced to sign a waiver for such occurrences.” She waved a dismissive hand at the telecast. “It’s sound business sense. Sign a waiver if you want to work, then there are no lawsuits.”

Bertha raised her eyebrows. Her second-in-command did excellent work, but sometimes she had an insensitive side. However, Istokakians were known for being cold, calculating people.

“What time is Lunatic due to arrive?” Bertha asked, her stress level rising again.

“Within the hour, Madame,” Keet replied.

“Do not allow her entry until I say so.”

“Yes, Madame.”

She glanced over at Sex Slave 9 who stood feeding her pet kliteater where it lay purring in its cage. No, she better not take her frustrations out on SS9 just yet. His ass was still bruised from the last beating she’d given him, and replacing organic human skin on this particular model was expensive as hell. However, his realistic cries echoed in her mind, stirring her need to exact brutality on someone to ease her frustration and outrage. No, she couldn’t. She appreciated her possessions. Abusing her SSes without good reason was unconscionable.

Keet walked over and stood behind her where she sat at her desk. “Can I help relieve your tension, Madame?” Her cool hands landed on Bertha’s neck. “You don’t want to lose your composure with Moonstone.”

Something about the way Keet touched her—although it happened rarely—always jangled Bertha’s nerves unpleasantly. She rose from her seat, forcing Keet, who was much shorter, to back away. “No, no. Thank you.”

SS9 approached her desk. “May I be of service instead?” he asked.

What the hell? She might as well get herself off and vent her stress so she could deal with the Universal Alliances’ precious lead investigator. SS9 pleased her immensely. She’d had him designed specifically for her, a lookalike of an Earth actor she’d seen on an ancient black-and-white flick she’d stumbled across. She’d found the actor very attractive, and with a few nuances added to the model, she was quite pleased with the end result and had been fucking SS9 for the last month. No strings attached. No testosterone tempers. No human man trying to control her every move. SS9 was perfect.

“Sex. Now.” She pointed at the blob cube across the room.

Was that a sigh of disgust she’d just heard from Keet? Anger swept through Bertha. How dare the little Istokakian judge her? After all, over half of Bendlight Enterprises’ bread and butter stemmed from sex products.

“Please leave us, Keet.”

“Yes, Madame.”

After Keet had exited Bertha’s boudoir, the SS9 walked over to the six-by-six wad of sparkling turquoise goo and lay back on it. The substance oozed around his honed body, conforming to it. Bertha sashayed over to him, her large breasts swaying in their heavy-duty adhesive brassiere. She’d thought about having her boobs laser reduced, but her sexual partners loved them so much that she put up with the unwieldiness of her tits just for the attention.

She touched her right earlobe to contact the front desk where Luna would be received.

“Yes, Madame?” a voice said in her ear.

“I’m going to fuck my SS9,” she said. “Don’t disturb me until I contact you.”

“Noted.”

She ended the transmission and shimmied out of her flowing gemstone-thread dress. Its sparkling layers fell to her plump feet with a soft clatter. Bertha stepped out of her jade kitten heels and the pool of gemstone material around them.

“Make yourself hard,” she commanded SS9.

He gripped his half-erect cock and pumped it a few times until it stood proud and purplish. SS9 waited for her next order.

“Nine inches, extra girth,” she stated. “I need to mellow out or I’ll say something stupid to that bitch and reveal too much to her.”

SS9 blinked rapidly, the lovely blue irises flaring white as his mental banks processed and carried out her demands. His cock lengthened by two inches and expanded in girth. The veins mottling the superb organic skin thickened and turned slightly bluer.

“Ah, excellent,” Bertha cooed. “You always make me feel amazing, SS9.”

“It is my pleasure to pleasure you,” he returned with a smile that was programmed to melt her pussy.

One thing Bertha never regretted was investing in the automaton sex slave program. The SSes were such a success throughout many galaxies that eventually she was able to buy out the other investors and now owned the entire enterprise and its sister companies. The models manufactured could be easily shipped to parts of galaxies where no humanoid wanted to live. Space piracy was the only risk when shipping automatons, especially since insurance companies prolonged payment for months. SSes didn’t fetch the phenomenal sums that the special orders for various humans, humanoids, and various other aliens did in her flesh trafficking enterprise. It was exceedingly difficult and often pricey to find special orders when an SS could be manufactured to replicate that order and at a much lower cost.

SS9 raised his arms, the goo emitting a loud sound of breaking suction, and welcomed her to join with his body. “Madame?”

Throbbing and tingling in her pussy quickly forced Bertha to crawl onto the goo cube to straddle SS9. The soft warm material pulled and sucked at her hands and knees, the squishy tugging sensation exciting her even more. The thrumming in her folds intensified, and fluids wet her pussy. Bertha positioned herself over SS9’s cock. Lowering herself a bit, she stopped with his cockhead pressed to the edge of her opening.

“Pulsate,” she ordered.

His cock buzzed. Bertha impaled herself on his rod, the width and length of it filling and spreading her passage.

“Ohhh, yeah,” she murmured.

The goo oozed up and over her thick thighs. It cradled her ass where the substance had pushed up between SS9’s legs. Bertha rode his dick, the vibration from it stimulating everything inside her, even penetrating her womb with sensation. She whimpered and increased her pace.

“Activate fuck mode,” she snapped.

SS9 raised his hips, bucking in the gelatinous substance, the suction loud, obscene. Tightness built in Bertha’s core. She humped harder, driving SS9’s cock deeper as it buzzed a little faster inside her.

“Oh…fuck…oh…”

Her boobs swayed, the soft, clear support encasing them whining slightly. She wanted to release them, have SS9 lick her nipples as she shattered around his cock, but experience had taught her that her breasts in the goo block resulted in weighing her down, unable to breathe or move, although the near asphyxiation had made her come harder than she had in years. Thankfully Keet had found her in time.

SS9 grunted and groaned, but Bertha paid no heed to his programmed sounds. She focused on the pulsation deep inside her, the way his rod rubbed every bit of her passage. A gush of fluids aided her hip thrusts, and she rubbed harder still on him. The fluttering inside her increased, the coil winding tighter and tighter, then release hit her, and she threw her head back, howling her ecstasy to the ceiling. She ground her pussy down as firmly as she could, forcing his cockhead to rake her deepest part. She kept thrusting downward as the ooze cushion flowed up and over her hips. She reached full completion and looked down to find SS9’s blond head barely above the glittering turquoise material.

Drained, Bertha braced her forearms briefly on the surface of the goo. Once her elbows sank into it, she straightened, touched her earlobe, and ordered an attendant to enter the boudoir to aid her.

A humanoid woman hurried in with a clear wand, its tip glowing. She touched the goo cube on one side then the other. The substance relaxed, spreading out into a thick square mat. Bertha raised herself from SS9 and tiptoed across the goo, her toes sinking into the cushiony substance with each step. Once her automaton had risen and cleared the cushion, the attendant touched it on either side again with the wand, and the cube resumed its original shape, twinkling prettily beneath the soft overhead lights.

“Luna Moonstone is here and waiting, Madame,” the attendant said.

“Lunatic will just have to keep waiting.”

The little woman nodded and exited the room, her bare ass pink beneath the see-through adhesive skirt.

“Dismissed, honey babe,” Bertha said with a wave of her chubby gemstone-tipped fingers.

The replicant stared at her quizzically.

“Dismissed, SS9,” she corrected herself.

Naked and sparkling with goo glitter, SS9 rose and exited through the door leading into Bertha’s main quarters.

Bertha left her dress and heels for her wardrobe attendant Miyamiya to retrieve then sauntered over to the misting booth in the back of her boudoir. The one wall that separated her personal space from the office glowed a soft red, indicating the tense mood on the other side. She hoped Lunatic wasn’t giving her employees a hard time. Only Bertha was allowed to upset them, so if Luna Moonstone was overstepping her boundaries, Bertha just might have to give her a piece of her mind—right after she kicked the woman’s perfect ass.

She stepped into the booth and waited as the shield slid in place. Mist cascaded down on her to build on her skin and wash the glitter off her body. It collected at her feet to trickle into a catch basin for recycling.

After using a cleansing vapor for her hair, followed by a final mist, she said, “Spice aroma.”

Her favorite perfume all the way from Earth’s Asia filled the little chamber, infusing her skin and hair with a heady spice. The aroma smelled so amazing saliva flooded her mouth.

The misting booth completed its cycle, the membranous shield slid aside, and Bertha exited in a cloud of steam and aroma to find Miyamiya standing nearby, a fluffy zote towel over one arm and a garment over the other.

“I took the liberty of choosing your suede zote gown, Madame. The color is lovely with your gray eyes and flatters your cleavage. The gown is simple, but the flowing skirt looks great with your curves.”

“Excellent choice. Thank you.” Bertha allowed Miyamiya to towel her dry. When Miyamiya was finished, Bertha raised her arms so her attendant could lower the incredibly soft dress over her body.

“Shoes?” Miyamiya asked. “Possibly something very high since Ms. Moonstone is so tall?”

“Yes, definitely.”

Minutes later, Bertha stared at her mirror image floating in front of her. She might be buxom with wide hips and thick thighs, but she had kickass curves. Her wardrobe aide had done well dressing her for this meeting. Lunatic might be a tall, willowy goddess of a woman, but Bertha could intimidate her with her poise, wealth, and this scrumptious dress accentuating her every curve. She grinned at herself, feeling extremely pleased. Curvy goddesses had plenty of power, too.

She walked carefully over to the small environment for her pet kliteater and greeted it with kissy noises. “How’s my fuzzy baby today?”

She reached into the environment and stroked the animal’s silky ebony fur. The little beasts were all the rage among the wealthy. They looked strikingly similar to a human woman’s pussy except their fur was softer than anything Bertha had ever felt. Attempts were being made to harvest kliteaters for their pelts, which were only black, brown, or white, but the animals were difficult to breed and one of the reasons they were so expensive. Except for the hundreds of needle teeth hidden in what looked like a vulva, the creatures were pleasant and calming pets. However, feeding them raw meat, which was their primary diet, could be challenging when fresh meat this far out in the Wavelength Galaxy was difficult to come by on a regular basis. Luckily, kliteaters only ate once a month. And when someone pissed Bertha off, a sheered-off finger or toe as punishment worked great as her pet’s meal.

Bertha ran her fingernails down the animal’s back, and it rewarded her with riotous purring. Caressing the kliteater always soothed Bertha’s nerves.

With her tension abating, she turned to face Miyamiya and nodded. Her attendant walked over to the door where Keet now stood. Keet moved to let Luna Moonstone enter. If Bertha kept her composure and watched what she said, she wouldn’t have to deal with this bitch again for several weeks.

“Bodacious Bertha,” Luna whispered as she waited with growing impatience to enter the voluptuous tycoon’s domain. She only paid half attention to a mining accident flickering on the low wall encircling the receptionist’s desk. “Why do we have to play this game every damn time and make me wait”—she touched her wrist bones on her left hand where tiny glowing dots and miniscule oblong shapes appeared—“ninety minutes.” She pushed her irritation down, drew in a deep breath then held it. Slowly, she let the air slip past her lips until she’d expelled it all and gave the receptionist a meaningful look.

The receptionist glanced away.

“Let me handle this.” Pet rose and moved from the seating area to the receptionist’s desk so fast it startled the woman. “Well?” Pet demanded. “Bendlight Enterprises is now working on two hours of stalling. Shall I contact UA headquarters?”

The whip-thin, half-human, half-Blugavian woman barely brushed her index finger over her earlobe then smiled tightly. “Her personal attendant will let you in momentarily.”

“So you keep saying.” Pet fluttered her neck wings in irritation.

“Please, I’m only performing my duties,” the woman said, her eyes widening with concern.

Luna smirked at the receptionist’s expression. Most people knew about the temper Ripstingers possessed. She waved a dismissing hand at the employee to diffuse the situation. “It seems my assistant is more impatient than I am.”

The woman beamed at Luna. “Would you like me to order you and your assistant something to—?”

“Madame will see you now, Ms. Moonstone.”

Luna glanced over to find the small Istokakian lady who was Bertha’s ever-present shadow. Something about the Istokakian always unnerved Luna, as though the female would pounce and bite the instant Luna turned her back. What was her name again? Keek? No, it was Keet. She assessed Bertha’s second-in-command for a moment. Judging by the dark gray of her skull ridge, Keet was in her early fifties. She stared at Luna with violently purple eyes then offered her a slow smile that widened to reveal the one incisor, longer than the other, with its façade of neon purple moon crystal. To Luna, it looked like another eye, a miniature version inside her mouth that matched her creepy violet eyes. Luna suppressed a shiver, rose to her feet, and brushed past Keet as she focused on keeping the shiver prickling her body from forming. She entered Bertha’s boudoir.

Pet rushed over to Luna, but she motioned for her to remain in the waiting area. Pouting, Pet nodded then let out a little sigh of disappointment.

“Luna!” Bertha called too happily from a bistro table. “So nice to see you.”

“Likewise, Bertha.”

Upon reaching the auburn-haired woman, Luna took her proffered hand and shook it firmly. She certainly presented the picture of a wealthy, pampered, full-bodied woman with flashing gray eyes and a flawless complexion. She’d even taken the time to have her heavy tresses piled on the back of her head and laced with jade beads. The effect of the green in her dark-red hair definitely caught the eye. No wonder she’d made Luna wait so long. However, what Bertha didn’t realize was that Luna wasn’t intimidated by other women. To some extent, she actually admired Bertha.

“Your hair strung with those beads is stunning, by the way.”

Although the compliment was sincere, it also had the desired result. Bertha lit up, her smile reaching her eyes so their color turned almost silver. The woman resembled the sky on one of the stormy planets—placid one instant, threatening the next, followed by brilliant colors and stars as she was right now.

“Do you have your records ready?” Luna asked politely.

“Yes. Keet will bring them up for you.”

Still beaming with delight, Bertha swept a pudgy hand out over the table carved in the form of a human couple having sex in a sitting position, the tabletop a circular sheet of what appeared to be glass. With Bertha’s expensive tastes, Luna would bet the top was a slice of a gigantic clear pearl from Blugavia. Bertha’s gemstone nails caught the illumination from the glowing stone in the table’s center, where an old-fashioned porcelain teapot from Earth and its matching creamer and sugar bowl awaited use.

“I only drink tea the way it was originally meant to be drank.” Offering Luna another radiant smile, she wiggled her fingers over the teapot. “Please, sit and join me for some honey and lavender brew.”

“Over the top as usual, eh, Bertha?” Sitting, Luna maintained eye contact.

“When you’re as wealthy as I am,”—Bertha smirked as she poured tea in the rose-patterned cup—“one can afford to be whatever he or she desires.”

Luna couldn’t help chuckling. Bodacious Bertha had many infuriating characteristics, but she had to admit the woman was definitely entertaining and full of charm. The fact that Bertha was one of the few fully human women in the Wavelength Galaxy proved interesting, too.

Keet appeared next to them with a stylus. It ejected a luminescent blob into the air which stretched into a rectangular translucent screen. She pushed it in front of Luna. “Here are Madame’s files.”

Nodding her thanks, Luna sat for nearly an hour going over the figures for Bendlight SS, Inc. and Bendlight SS Accessories. She frowned as she reached the end of the records.

“Is there a problem?” Bertha asked sweetly.

“There’s no information for your Fe-adrene manufacturing,” Luna said bluntly. She kept studying the file names and swiped icons to scan their contents a second time. “Headquarters wants a full report, Bertha.”

“I’m so sorry,” Bertha said in mock surprise. “Keet often forgets about my new venture.”

Luna quirked an eyebrow. “Do you seriously expect me to believe that?”

The tycoon straightened in her seat, the action urging her massive boobs to strain against her plunging neckline. “Luna, dear, are you implying that I’m trying to cheat Universal Alliances out of valuable tax money?”

“Where are the records?” Luna dipped her head toward the screen.

Bertha’s gray eyes hardened. Her bow lips flattened, and the corners of her mouth drew back in irritation. She flicked her gaze to Keet. “Show her.”

Quickly Keet accessed an icon that opened to records about organic human replacement skin and vibrator mechanism refills. One marked MSA possessed the figures for the Fe-adrene sales.

Flicking her gaze up at Keet, Luna asked, “MSA?”

“Male stimulation aids,” Keet answered.

It was there hidden in plain sight. Very clever.

“Trying to cover your tracks, Bertha?” Luna asked.

“Of course not!” Bertha plunked a silver spoon down on the tabletop with a sound that had Luna looking to see if the surface had shattered. “I can’t help it if you missed those records.” She shrugged, her big breasts swaying heavily with the action. “Besides, Fe-adrene is legal in most galaxies. I just choose to call mine a more creative name. It boosts business and—”

“And labeled differently, plus logged with male enhancement pills, provides a shrewd method of not reporting income then claiming it was a simple oversight.”

Bertha pouted and dabbed at her lips with a zote handkerchief. “Oh, piss off, Lunatic.” She had the grace to cringe slightly upon the slip of the nickname. “Everything for my Fe-adrene manufacturing is right there at your fingertips.”

It didn’t bother her that Bertha had called her Lunatic—well, it did a little—but she was used to it, especially after hearing it so often from the shady entrepreneurs and drug thugs. Refusing to react to Bertha’s insult, she transferred the Bendlight information over to her system then sent it on to headquarters. Luna sipped her tea and let the tension subside before voicing her next question which would certainly piss off the business queen.

“Do you have any unreported income, Bertha?”

The woman didn’t bat an eye. “No.”

“Are you sure?”

“What the fuck, Luna? If you want to know something, ask.”

“Rumors are rampant about humans and aliens trafficked as special orders in the high-priced sex trade, that Bendlight SS is just a front.”

Luna waited. Calmly, Bertha poured herself another cup of tea, added three cubes of sugar and a healthy dose of cream.

“Come on, Bertha. Level with me.”

She looked directly at Luna over the rim of her cup. Not even a telltale flicker of her pupils gave Luna any sense of what she was thinking. As half Lustonian, Luna had a keen ability to read people’s expressions, tics, and body language to ascertain their intentions or detect lies, but to Luna’s consternation, Bertha was often an enigma.

The big woman let out a disgusted breath then set her cup on the pearly tabletop. “You bore me with this quest, Luna. First of all, sex is enjoyed by all. Only Earth and—”

“And Mars along with a few outposts on the edge of the newly discovered galaxies still consider sex as immoral outside of a relationship. Spare me the monologue,” Luna said, her patience growing shorter by the second.

“It’s never been proven that I deal in real skin,” Bertha replied. “If it’s never been proven then that means I’m not a skin trafficker. You also know that everything with Bendlight SS, Inc. always comes out perfect and to the last penny regardless of the planet, dimension, or galaxy.” She smiled so big her cheeks turned into pink apples. “So fuck off with your insipid crusade to put me in a prison cell.” She motioned to Keet. “All my records are in your hands, and I’m sure you’ve already reported them. I have business to attend to. Until next time.” She rose and sashayed to the back of her quarters, her wide hips swinging from side to side in a manner that said she owned the place, and exited into the next chamber.

Keet dismantled the hovering screen and slipped the stylus into her vest pocket. She grinned, and the moon crystal tooth winked eerily in the light. “This way, Ms. Moonstone.”

“I know my way out.”      She left Bendlight Enterprises, thanking all the existing heavens she didn’t have to return for a few more weeks. If only she could avoid her new ultra-hyperactive assistant for that long, too.

Pet met her in the seating room. She rushed over to her, neck wings aflutter. “Well, how’d it go? Everything well? Do I need to do anything? What’s the next step?”

“No, no…” She waved her to stand down. “Let’s just get out of here.”

Chapter Five

Minutes later on the transport vessel, Luna finished reporting to her senior supervisor.

“I see you have a personal assistant,” Stellarman stated, his expression bland as always.

“Yes, sir,” Luna replied. “Yes, that is part of the reason I commed you. She needs clearance to accompany me.”

“Once she’s checked out and all looks good, I’ll make sure it’s done. Who’s paying her? You?”

“No,” Luna said, “but it has been handled.”

“If she does well, I’ll check with UA about officially taking her on as your assistant.”

Next to her, Pet performed an overjoyed jig. Arm against her side, palm facing down, Luna motioned for her to compose herself. Sobering, Pet nodded and stood as still as possible, a stance that looked as though she were shivering.

“I have a new case for you to handle,” Stellarman informed Luna. “I’ll brief you when you arrive at headquarters.”

The image vanished, ending the transmission. Just what Luna needed, one more case to handle when she could barely manage the ones she had now.

Later, she disembarked from the government transport ship, guiding Pet through the various checkpoints where Luna flashed her ID at the guards. Thankfully Stellarman had sent out a temporary pass notification to the checkpoints for Pet so there were no long security assessments. After being frisked at the last post, the day guard paying too much attention to her breasts as always, she was released to go on her way with Pet. Most of the employees acquired foot discs to convey them to their offices, but Luna preferred to walk, which pleased the over-exuberant Pet.

She passed her office and continued to Stellarman’s. A guard acknowledged her and let them inside where she found her supervisor, who stood at the huge window-wall staring out into the blackness of space.

“Took you long enough, Moonstone. Walk all the way up here again?”

“Technology has made society lazy, and I’m not about to be the same way. Even if I am half Lustonian, I still needed exercise to maintain my shape. Besides, my assistant is a Ripstinger.”

“Well, that explains a lot. They are quite hyper, aren’t they?” He faced her, his gaze going to Pet, then back to Luna. “You’re different, Moonstone. I’ll give you that, but I guess your uniqueness is one of the many reasons I like you so well. How did you end up with”—he inclined his head to Pet, who grinned back at him—“your miniature bodyguard slash assistant?”

“Let’s just say it was one part adoration on Pet’s part and a whole lot of Crater Bob’s insistence.”

Pet repeatedly bounced from one foot to the other. Luna placed a hand just under her buzzing neck wings. Immediately, Pet calmed to slight bodily vibrations.

Although Stellarman seemed to genuinely like Luna, she wasn’t sure what to think of him. He crossed his office to stand next to her. As tall as she, Stellarman met her gaze with eyes so pale blue they almost appeared colorless. At first glance he seemed to be fully human, descended from Earthers who had first ventured out into the galaxies when they’d finally figured out how to build ships that could withstand all the harmful space radiation and pressure traveling through wormholes, but a second glance at him said there was something else in his DNA. Stellarman had told her once that his great-grandmother times six had been a Blanc, thusly named by the French Earthers who had discovered the planet masquerading as a ball of ice. Inhabited by a race of tall humanoids who were as pale as the snow swirling on their planet, their hair and eyes lacking pigment, the Blancs kept to themselves. Even in commerce they wanted only the necessities required to continue their Spartan-like lives. Stellarman’s grandfather had fallen in love with a Blanc woman who had agreed to leave the planet and be his wife.

What bothered Luna about her superior was the fact that he was always so aloof, cold even. Her occupation had given her the ability to read people and it often protected her. The feeling of not knowing where she stood with someone left her unsettled and unsure of herself. His steady gaze unnerved her, but she fought to keep her flawless composure.

“Your reports for the last dozen tax accounts are impeccable as always.” His smooth, polished voice was as unemotional as the rest of him. “However, I have concerns about Bertha Bendlight. We’ve been hearing more and more about her trafficking special flesh to Earth and Mars as well as rumors that she has illegal dealings with Fe-adrene.”

“I confronted Bendlight on the Fe-adrene matter,” Luna told him. “She resented my questions, which is normal for her, but she insists her Fe-adrene is the same mineral supplement sold legally but processed under a different brand name to set it apart from other sellers. Bendlight manufactures hers under the name Femdrene.”

“From what reports are saying, Bendlight is adding a chemical component that makes Femdrene more potent—and addictive.” He moved over to an empty space, stepped on a small dais just big enough to stand on, then waited. Glistening strings pushed up from the floor to quickly form a large desk. In seconds, Stellarman was able to recline back in an impressive desk chair.

“Oh, that is so ice!” Pet whispered excitedly. “I want a setup like that.”

Luna shushed her with a stern look.

With regret, Pet mouthed, “Sorry.”

“There is no record anything was submitted to Universal Alliances Drug Administration for testing and approval, but Bertha’s Femdrene hasn’t been officially released to the public yet either, so it may all be rumors started by her competitors.”

Luna walked over to stand in front of the desk. “If Bertha plans to run a black business for her Femdrene, she’s shrewd, so it won’t be easy to bust her if we find out the rumors are based on fact.”

He regarded her quietly for a long moment, the cool hue of his eyes boring straight through her until she wanted to scream. The faster fluttering of Pet’s neck wings hinted at her uneasiness, too.

“I’m taking you off income and tax records and putting you back on our DEA. We have to head Bendlight off, and you’re the only one I believe capable of doing it.”

Pet practically vibrated right off the floor, forcing Luna to once more press her hand under Pet’s little wings.

Appalled, she could only stare at him. Panic stomped through her, leaving huge footprints of fear in her guts. “Put me back on drug enforcement? Why? If it does turn out that Bendlight’s competitors have planted rumors, the amount of tax work I’ll fall behind on will be…” She swept both hands back through her hair as though to catch her scattering thoughts. “Boss, I can’t get behind on my job. I’ll never get caught up.”

“Don’t worry. Cases have been shuffled around the team, and Misrik will take yours.”

She sighed in relief. At least there was that bit of comfort. Misrik was almost as good as she was. “But DEA? Again? I can’t. I swore I’d never go back to that sort of work.”

The barest hint of a smile curved Stellarman’s lips. Instead of it giving Luna a tiny nugget of hope, it sealed her fate. Any time Stellarman smiled, it was rarely from mirth.

“You’re excellent at reading people, Luna.” The gentle yet firm manner in which he’d said her first name was yet another of the odd little differences that made him not quite an Earther. Although his icy eyes frightened the shit out of her, something in his tone provided the opposite effect and soothed some of her inner turmoil. “You notice little things my other investigators do not, plus you’re well-trained in weapons and hand-to-hand combat, so I want you to partner with someone I’ve handpicked for this investigation.”

“Oh?” The tremor in her one-word response pissed her off. It was difficult to rattle her, but this didn’t bode well at all. The last time she’d had a partner was when she’d lost her temper at the Lightspeed Lounge. She’d shot and killed several people, including her partner. Although her partner’s death had been labeled an accident, Luna still had nightmares about the incident and wore the nickname that now haunted her every day.

Stellarman held up a hand, palm out. “I know what you’re thinking, Moonstone. You were under duress, provoked, and had to make an immediate decision when the only decisions to choose from were bad ones that would make the situation worse.”

He let his words hang between them for a few seconds, but it did nothing to calm her any further.

“This new partner will help keep you grounded,” he added.

“Help keep me grounded?”

“Perhaps that’s not the proper word. I do understand your nature, Moonstone.” He paused and allowed his comment to sink in, but she continued to stare at him, perplexed. “To aide in keeping you calm, thinking clearly, and undistracted, I’ve given permission for fraternization between the two of you—if you wish to do so—to aid you in this assignment.”

Fraternization. It was his very formal way of saying she could have sex with her partner. Unless there was special permission, UA employees were not to have sexual relationships with each other, because sex often created major issues at the job place. If permission was given, it was always for case partners and for good reason. No strings were attached. No emotion was permitted, or the partners were immediately separated.

He settled his attention on Pet.

Oh fuck. Luna knew that look, knew what was coming next.

“And since you already have a personal assistant,” he added, “whom I feel will serve you well…”

Pet beamed at him so big he actually smiled back slightly.

“Then I believe that…” He frowned slightly. “What is your name?” he asked.

Pet rattled off the long string of gibberish that constituted her name. “But Luna gave me my own name I really like.” She bounced up and down as though running in place. “Petunia. Pet for short.”

Stellarman nodded sagely, the corners of his mouth still barely quirked in his version of a smile. “Yes, that does serve you well. As I was saying, Pet, you will monitor Luna and her partner to make sure no emotions develop between them. Also, you will report to me on their partnership once a week. Understood?”

“Oh, yes! I’ll—”

His raised index finger instantly silenced Pet. Damn, Luna wished she could do that with her.

“I’ll make sure everything is processed for you to be her assistant, and you will be given a device with which to contact me.” He looked at Luna.

She swallowed a lump in her very dry throat. Sexual intercourse was granted to keep her mellow and thinking rationally, so who in the hell could her senior supervisor possibly have picked to work with her?

“I thought you’d be pleased about the sex perk,” Stellarman said mildly.

“Oh sure,” she snapped, “just more proof that I’m a thermonuclear pussy waiting to detonate.”

At that, his eyes deepened slightly in color and his lips actually twitched. “You’ll be fine, Moonstone.” He steepled his fingers together then leaned forward, elbows on the shiny black desktop, and inclined his head to someone behind Luna. “I’d like you to meet your new partner. He said a couple of words that sounded like he was sneezing. “However, since their names are so infuriatingly difficult to pronounce, he goes by the nickname Crack which, if I understand correctly, is a name bestowed upon him by his fellow academy comrades because he can ‘crack’ any female with his charms.” Stellarman smirked slightly.

Luna spun on her heel to face her new partner and froze. “Crack, huh? More like Ass Crack, the nastiest one this side of his planet.”

The Fourpeck Fire Heathen who had been such a fuckwad to her at Crater Bob’s grinned back at Luna, his eyes alight with flickering lustful flames.

She groaned. Oh sure. He was just what she needed all right. What power in the universe had chosen to torment her like this?

Chapter Six

Luna left Stellarman’s office. Behind her Pet rushed to keep up with Luna’s long strides, her tiny feet pattering like rainfall on the shiny metallic floor.

“Wait up, bubbinyata!” Crack called from down the corridor.

“No!” Walking faster, Luna couldn’t put enough distance between the new DEA assignment—or Crack.

The buzzing of Pet’s neck wings heralded her arrival next to Luna. “Why don’t you fuck him and get it out of your system?”

Luna halted to face her, but Pet flew past her and had to circle back, her toes skimming the floor.

“What’s wrong?” Pet asked.

“You can’t be serious that I…” She glanced back the way they’d come.

Crack stood halfway between them and Stellarman’s office, his gaze boring into her, mouth crooked in a smug smile.

“Maybe if you fuck him,” Pet continued, lowering her voice, “you two can get on with your jobs and be good DEA partners.”

Surprisingly, Pet’s suggestion made sense. It wasn’t that Luna wasn’t attracted to him—because she certainly was—but it was Crack’s attitude that women couldn’t say no to him that pissed her off. Slowly he sauntered toward them, his grin spreading ever wider, eyes glowing brighter with interest.

“I can’t blame him,” Pet said. “You are spectacular, Luna. If I were into females, I’d try for you, too.”

At that, Luna snorted in amusement, which earned her a huge smile from her assistant.

“Fuck like Blanc ice bunnies,” Luna mused aloud, “then get on with our assignment, huh?”

“Exactly!” Pleased by Luna’s interest in her idea, Pet bounced in place and fluttered her wings faster. “Enjoy it! It’s in your nature to fuck, so use him. Fuck him. Make him scream.”

It was true. Her nature demanded that she screw at every opportunity, the one reason Bob often pouted and… Why was she thinking of him at a time like this? She eyed Crack who was gradually closing the distance between them. Bob’s refusal to make love to her still rankled Luna. And since she’d been fisted by him yet denied his amazing cock—and she did favor his cock the most for some reason—she still had an unfulfilled sensation.

“Find an empty office,” she whispered.

“I’ll make sure it’s a quiet one.” Pet zipped off to check the workplaces lining the corridor.

The moment Crack reached Luna, he stared down at her, the flames in his eyes high and flickering. “So you really are a fifty-fifty.”

“So?”

“You are the most beautiful female I’ve ever seen.”

His strange, guttural way of talking stroked her libido. “I’ve heard that a lot.”

“Yes, but I mean it.”

The scathing retort on the tip of her tongue fizzled and died. He actually seemed sincere. And she did find him very attractive—burly, thick through the chest and shoulders, and damn tall.

“I am very sorry for the way I behaved on the freighter.” Crack’s stilted English lent his apology even more sincerity. “I was really drunk and putting on a show for my companions.”

“That is no excuse.” Her rebuttal fell flat.

“You’re right. It’s not. However, I still desire you,” he said, leaning down by her ear. “We have permission to fuck with no strings attached.”

“Yes, I’m well aware of the fact.”

“Luna!” Pet’s voice carried down the hall like a chiming bell. “I found one. Follow me.”

Crack quirked a yellow eyebrow at Luna, then walked beside her as they followed Pet who half-walked, half-flew six doors down and stopped.

“Here. In here. This is… Well, you can…” She looked up the hall, back the other way, then lowered her voice. “You can fuck in here.”

“Oh?” Crack turned to Luna. The surprise on his face switched to smug again.

“Don’t make it out to be more than it is, sweetie,” Luna almost snarled. “Fucking will shut you up about it, and we can get it out of our systems, okay?”

“Whatever you say, bubbinyata.”

He smiled, revealing fangs that shot apprehension through her and, strangely, lust straight to her pussy. Her clit throbbed with her anticipation.

A notification sound drew Luna’s attention. She looked over at Pet who had taken a stylus from her skirt pocket and ejected goo into the air where it hovered for an instant then transformed into a tiny five-by-seven-inch screen.

“Mr. Stellarman says all is in order, and he even got the approval for me to be placed on the Universal Alliances’ payroll, so I’m an official UA employee. Now Crater Bob won’t have to pay me.”

“What is she talking about?” Crack asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Luna said, not wanting to discuss Bob with this big, condescending oaf.

Luna went inside the vacant office and waited for Crack to follow. He locked the door, spun on his heel, and offered her a grin that should have made her quake in her boots. Instead, her lust flamed hotter.

The vacant workplace didn’t even have a desk activation dais installed yet, nor had any other furniture been implemented in the room. Two clear walls, however, presented a view of space that went on for many astronomical units. From their position on the space station, Luna guessed they were facing the direction of Earth’s Milky Way Galaxy. She strode over to the curved expanse and peered out into the cosmos. From here, the supernova of the Crab star was still visible. Billions of burning balls of gas winked in the ebon and, off to the right, their solar system’s sun glowed bright yellow-orange.

“What a view,” she whispered in awe. “I never tire of admiring it.”

“It is impressive,” Crack said directly behind her.

His hot breath ghosted across her bare neck.

“There isn’t much to admire in my home planet’s section of space, so this is a nice change. Flameshot 7 is mostly a dead rock now.”

The casual way he spoke to her, as if he’d known her for a long time, helped lower Luna’s defenses toward him. Maybe Crack wasn’t such an asshole after all.

“Many of my people haven’t been lucky enough to get off the planet,” he added. “They’ll probably die there.”

His flat, unemotional tone urged her to face him. “Do you not care about your people?”

“I didn’t say that. I am resigned to their fate, as are they. UA has done very little in the way of saving them.” His eyes flared hotter, but the tiny flames in them had quelled so that Luna could barely see them. “Many, including myself, believe UA only wants enough of us to serve a purpose. I’ve heard the remarks of ‘let them die and the few who remain will breed more.’”

She’d heard the same comments from people, too. Such remarks pissed her off. Even now with all the races from human to Reptilian, Insectoids, and more from all the planets and galaxies, including all the alternate dimensions, the racism that still survived saddened and sickened Luna.

He backed her against the transparent barrier and placed his hands on either side of her head. His height and bulk intimidated her slightly, but most of all it stimulated her.

“Is it true what is said about male Fire Heathens?” she asked, a slight quiver in her voice.

His mouth twisted into a cocky half smile. “Is what true?”

She was known for being a kickass woman, strong, someone who enjoyed sex of all kinds. Right now, he was baiting her. She had to show her tough side.

“Do you have four cocks?”

He chuckled. The flames in his eyes lengthened. “What I have is access to four cocks.”

Befuddled, she frowned at him. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“I’ll show you when the time is right.”

“So, if you have access to four dicks, what does that say about female Fire Heathens?”

“Big females have bigger body parts to fill up.”

She didn’t know what to say to that.

Crack burst out laughing. “Let me teach you, babbinyata.” He leaned in and licked the shell of her ear, the heat of his breath like being kissed by a flame. “I’ll show you things about sex you haven’t yet experienced.”

He was going to show her things about sex?

“You forget that I’m a fifty-fifty,” she retorted, miffed.

“Just because you’re half Lustonian,” he replied, his accent thickening with his desire, “doesn’t mean you’ve fucked every form that’s fuckable.” He pressed his pelvis to hers, the bulge of his cock clearly evident through his uniform pants. “I wanted you the first time I saw you and I want you even more now. Turn around and grab your ankles, babbinyata. I will fuck you hard and make you beg for more. You will be sore for days.”

His cockiness was beginning to take the shine off her need for sex. “Damn sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

She blinked. As he stared into her eyes, she realized he really meant it. Might as well see if his claims had any merit. She kissed him, but instead of kissing her back, he spun her around, flattening her against the wall.

“I want to see that gorgeous ass,” he said, “and that delectable pussy.”

Crack palmed her waist with one hand. With the other, he unfastened his pants. In seconds, he slid his cock between her legs, the silkiness of it caressing her cunt where it peeked through her crotchless shorts. A moan slipped out of her. She hoped this was half as good as he claimed it would be.

His fingernails hardened and lengthened, biting into her skin at her waist. With finesse, he raked them down her hip just enough the material parted and her shorts fell over her hips, one side ruined, the other side hooked around her right foot. He tugged her backward, angling her ass outward. To brace herself, Luna put one arm under her forehead, her wrist serving as a cushion, her gaze pointing out into the great beyond, stars winking as they bore witness of her escapade.

He palmed her pussy, his hand rough and wonderfully hot. Whimpering, she couldn’t help wiggling her ass in anticipation. Her juices dewed her pussy, and the throbbing in her folds was so intense she wondered if she’d climax the instant his cock touched her.

“You are a lusty beauty, aren’t you?” he murmured.

“Just shut up and fuck me,” she snapped.

His deep laughter served as his only reply. Moving closer, he pushed his cock along her pussy, rubbing back and forth through her fluids.

“Oh…” She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for penetration.

Crack issued a few sounds of approval and kept sliding his length through her pussy lips. Finally, when she thought she would come just from his teasing, he nestled his cock against her opening. At the touch and pressure of it, Luna knew he was bigger than any she’d ever had before.

“You will not be used to this at first,” he said, lust further distorting his broken English. “But once your body has adjusted, we will fuck long and hard.”

About to tell him to shut up again, she bit down on her lower lip as he began pushing into her.

“Oh fuck…” She breathed out the words as well as her tension in an effort to receive his cock with as little pain as possible. He stretched her so tightly she momentarily wondered if her tissues would tear, but as he penetrated her each little bit, her body accepted him and slowly adjusted to his length and girth.

“Fuck, fuck…”

“I am fucking you, babbinyata, and I plan to do it well and hard once your body has accepted me.” He palmed her right ass cheek, lightly stroking with his fingers. “I may be a brute in many ways, but I appreciate a warm, willing woman, especially one as exquisite as you.”

He pushed into her more. Luna whimpered, impossibly full and deliriously horny at the same time.

“I don’t know if…if I can handle any more,” she gasped.

“Shut up and let me fuck you,” he said, turning her earlier words around at her.

He had to be halfway inside her by now, right? She gulped, trying not to tense, and opened her eyes to stare out into the beauty of the Wavelength Galaxy, the stars seeming to twinkle even brighter in her heightened state of awareness.

Crack pressed farther into her body.

“Oh, oh…” She didn’t think she could do it but she’d be damned if she didn’t give it her best.

Another small thrust from him had his cockhead firmly against the opening of her womb. For an instant, she wondered if he’d break through it.

“You are so tight and hot,” Crack muttered as he smoothed his hands over and around her ass and hips. “I am fully seated inside you, babbinyata.”

The throbbing of her pussy, the pulsing inside her passage, and the molten sensation in her womb, her core, and down her inner thighs grew so intense she found herself mewling in pleasure-pain. Crack continued massaging her ass cheeks. He worked his hands up either hip to the small of her back where he applied more pressure, further relaxing Luna. The sensation of his massive rod inside her shot tremors of delight sluicing down her legs until they quaked so hard she thought she’d fall, but Crack kept her on her feet.

He withdrew slightly then pushed into her. He withdrew again to shove in a bit harder still. Each time he pumped into her, he added more force to it. Gradually, Luna’s body accepted him, stretched for him, and she thrust her hips backward to meet his movements.

“Ah, babbinyata is able to handle me now,” he said, chuckling. “Good. Good.”

He drove into her faster, harder. The soft ponging sound of her forehead on the wall, where she’d moved her arms to brace herself better, became repetitious. As big as his cock was, she wanted more of him, needed him to fuck her until she couldn’t walk, couldn’t move. Each time he shoved into her, her inner walls stretched until she didn’t think she could handle any more of his cock, then when he withdrew, she wanted to wail her frustration that she was no longer crammed to the brim.

He moved her backward, tugging on her hips so she had to extend her arms to support herself against the shield.

“I like—how is it said in your words—dog style?”

“That’s with me on”—she swallowed hard—“my hands and knees, ass in the air.”

“Get on them,” he ordered and swatted her butt. “Ass in the air so I can hammer it.”

She loved it when a sexual partner was demanding. She dropped onto her hands and knees and leaned on her forearms so her ass was pointed to the ceiling. At this level, she could look out into space as though she were peering over the edge of a platform instead of a shiny floor. He shoved his thick rod into her again. Luna whimpered in pleasure and concentrated on the transport shuttles, their lights bright and colors meaning different things, as they moved back and forth from the main ships to the space station. Once Crack was seated balls deep in her again, she relaxed.

“Fuck me,” she gasped.

Crack began a punishing rhythm. He rapidly forced his cock into her body and withdrew until she couldn’t make up her mind which was worse—being overstuffed or not having him inside her. Crack’s growls and snarls inflamed Luna’s building desire. The coil inside her tightened to excruciating proportions, but just when she thought she was on the threshold of a spectacular orgasm, Crack changed tactics and touched her anus with something hard.

She stiffened.

“Relax,” he ordered.

The throbbing of the hardness told her it was a cock. “Is that another—”

“Woman, shut up!”

He pushed harder against her anus, and the ring of muscles gave. The head of his second cock popped through. Luna gasped, stiffening despite his order to relax.

“I don’t think I can do this!” she said.

“My second cock is already inside you,” he said. “Breathe through it.”

He held still, firmly gripping either side of her ass, his first cock seated deeply in her, his second cock steadily growing larger. As it lengthened and thickened, it penetrated her ass deeper and deeper.

If she thought she was overstuffed before, it was nothing compared to a massive cock in her vagina and another penetrating her ass.

Every part of her from the waist down thrummed and pulsated with lust. She wanted his cocks to the hilt in both holes—now. She wanted him pummeling her body, his big hands squeezing her tits, his cum filling her.

When her body betrayed her and she found herself pushing backwards for more, Crack issued a snarl that both startled and titillated her. His second rod filled her chute, and she found herself skewered up both holes, her passages spread wide and burning with pain that was also pleasurable.

“Fuck me!” she squealed and thrust her ass back a little. “Come on, Crack. Do it!”

He began a rhythm that both tortured and delighted Luna. Every part of her pussy and ass tingled and beat with sensation. She’d never been so full of cock in her life and she relished every second of it.

Crack leaned over her body and slid his hands around her front to rip her blouse and adhesive bra free. He gripped her breasts roughly, squeezing painfully until she knew she’d have fingerprint bruises all over them. The pleasure-pain in her boobs matched the sensations in her ass and cunt and, as she let him fuck her so hard she actually saw stars behind her eyelids, her orgasm suddenly struck her.

She threw her head back and stiffened. Crack grunted, thrusting so hard into her that he scooted her over the carpet until her head hit the shield. Fiery sensation thrummed in her asshole, forcing her to clench her muscles. Crack grunted again, louder this time. The clenching in her anus shot tingles into her pussy that raced into her folds, burning delightfully, then up her vagina to contract so hard she buckled from the feeling. He withdrew then shoved into her again. Double-speared, more mind-blowing feelings raced through Luna, and she bowed her back stiffly as she howled her release.

Head back, her body bending until she thought she’d snap in half, she cried, “Oh fuck meeee!”

Crack fucked her even harder until he, too, stiffened. Intense heat bathed her vagina and her passage, setting off orgasmic aftershocks throughout her system. He fell over her, mashing her to the floor, both cocks still embedded deeply in her. They lay panting for a long time. Luna kept focusing on staying lax as the discomfort and abuse of her pussy and anus pulsed with a blend of pain, fire, abrasion, and pleasure.

“Pet will have to find me some clothes,” Luna finally said. “You destroyed mine.”

As he withdrew from her body, she whimpered.

“Easy, babbinyata. Don’t tense or it will hurt more.”

“A small price to pay for excellent sex,” she complimented him.

Crack laughed.

Once he’d pulled free of her, it left her bereft, and she sucked in a breath of pain at the sudden emptiness.

A tiny rap at the door, followed by it cracking open drew their attention. Luna looked up from where she lay drained on the floor.

Pet hurried inside, making sure she shut the door behind her, and rushed over to Luna. “Are you all right? You let out a scream that I heard out in the hall.”

Exhausted, Luna nodded. “I’m fine.”

“We have orders to go to Cerulea 2,” Pet explained, “so we need to embark on the assigned ship preparing to launch.” She met Luna’s gaze and grinned, her eyes full of mischief, but upon seeing her clothes, she added, “Uh-oh. You need a wardrobe. Where should I get you something?” Her gaze shifted to Crack’s crotch. “Holy fuck, those are some big cocks even half…” As she gaped at Luna, the reality of the sex Luna had just had hit Pet, planting a surprised and embarrassed expression on her face. She rushed back to the door, fluttering her neck wings in agitation. “Where shall I get some clothes for you, Luna?”

Crack howled with laughter. Luna couldn’t help herself and started giggling.

Chapter Seven

Bodacious Bertha didn’t usually take advantage of the company steam baths, but after the week she’d had, especially since she’d had to undergo another tax investigation by Lunatic, followed by Cerulea 2 raising their export and shipping fees on the Fe-adrene she purchased from their mines, she needed some relaxation. It had been weeks since she’d enjoyed a steam session. After all, what was the point in paying exorbitant prices for water if she didn’t utilize it once in a while? At this time of night, the company baths should be vacant, allowing her some quality alone time.

She click-clicked down the long corridor in her dainty lounging heels with their fluffy zote pompons on the toes. At the end of the polished hall, she stepped inside a transport tube to be lowered quickly on a magnetic dais. She exited into another hall where she immediately turned right and entered the gym, then tippy-tapped across it to the big steam room at the far end.

Only one person sat in the steam chamber. Once a puff of mist cleared, Bertha realized Keet was relaxed in one corner, her head back against the wall in total relaxation.

“Evening, Keet.”

The Istokakian woman started and sat up abruptly, her towel snug around her tiny breasts. “Oh, hello! I didn’t think you came down here anymore, Madame.”

“I need to relax, and since I haven’t used the steam chamber for a while, I thought it was the perfect solution tonight.” She dropped her robe and quickly secured a fluffy zote towel around her ample form. “It’s nice to come here when it’s quiet. I don’t have to oust anyone from my favorite seat.”

She sat in the curved seat closest to the hot coals imported from Flameshot 7 then leaned over to grasp the ladle, scoop out water, then pour the liquid over the glowing rocks. The hiss of the water evaporating and the huge puffs of silver-white steam instantly soothed Bertha’s frayed nerves. She dropped the ladle back into its bucket then leaned back into the seat with a huge sigh.

She sensed Keet before she actually heard her settle on the bench by her side.

“If you’re that tense, Madame, I can help relieve your stress.”

A cool hand slid up Bertha’s thick thigh. She popped her eyes open, but not before Keet had slipped her hand under Bertha’s towel and cupped her painted pussy.

“You have such a voracious sexual appetite, just consider it part of my duties, much like your SS9,” Keet added.

Unnerved, Bertha sat up and grabbed Keet’s hand to place it in Keet’s lap. She found herself staring into Keet’s neon purple eyes. Although she had always suspected Keet preferred females, having Keet confront her with sexual desire made Bertha very uncomfortable. With as much calm as she could muster, she politely gripped Keet’s hand and moved it off her thigh.

“Keet, I am strictly heterosexual. Females don’t do a thing for me.”

“No?”

The intense purple of Keet’s eyes seemed to burn brighter. She reached out to Bertha again, but Bertha scooted over a few inches, avoiding her touch.

“No,” Bertha stated firmly. “I love cock and only cock.”

“Then I could strap on—”

“No!” Bertha held up one hand in a placating manner. “Uhm, no.”

The unease in Bertha steadily rose to acute alarm. She had to control the situation. Keet was a superb right-hand woman, so she didn’t want to lose her over a misunderstanding or fire her should Keet refuse to accept Bertha’s sexual orientation.

“As flattered as I am that you’re interested in sex with this big mama”—she patted herself above her massive boobs and chuckled half-heartedly—“I am not, nor have I ever been, interested in pussy. Understood?”

“Yes, Madame.” Keet offered her a single curt nod. “I did not mean to offend.”

“No offense taken,” Bertha lied.

Masking her relief, she waited until Keet slipped over to the other end of the curved seat, putting a good six feet between them. Keet leaned her head back against the edge of the bench above her and closed her eerie eyes.

“I have an update for you regarding Cerulea 2’s new restrictions and regulations concerning the Fe-adrene we purchase from them,” Keet stated quietly. “I’ll have it available to you first thing in the morning.”

“Good,” said Bertha. “Until tomorrow, then.”

She sat quietly, but her jangled nerves wouldn’t allow her to relax. After enough time had passed that wouldn’t look like Bertha was bailing, she finally rose, bid Keet goodnight, and sashayed her ass out of there as nonchalantly as she could.

By the end of the work week, Luna and her two companions arrived at the check-in station next to Cerulea 2. The three moons, two large and one small, loomed in the vacuum surrounding the planet. This would be the first time Luna had ever touched down on Cerulea 2. Working for the tax department had her always visiting the check-in point before ships were permitted into Cerulea 2’s atmospheric zone. There, she met with a representative from Cerulea 2 who, without fail, provided a great meal and wonderful conversation in a private lounge.

Cerulea 2, a private society, was happy to trade with other planets and dimensions, but the Ceruleans kept actual interactions with travelers of any sort to a minimum to avoid altercations and unsavory influences such as narcotics. Ceruleans were a peaceful people who believed in compassion and living a simple life.

Now, Luna had been assigned to investigate a riot in the planet’s Fe-adrene mineral mines. She was the best at what she did, so she understood why Stellarman had called her back to the DEA. The problem was that she was terrified she’d lose her cool again. Enough lives were lost to the various synthetic drugs that were trafficked throughout the galaxies. She didn’t want to add any bodies to the total.

She said nothing to Pet or Crack as they exited the UA transport ship and docked with the Cerulean satellite station. Her companions right behind her, she walked across the clear banray connection tube and into the pressure chamber where they sat on hard benches while the designated time for pressurization ticked down.

“For your pleasure, Luna,” a familiar voice stated through the com, “you will find a small gift on the floor.”

“Thank you, Cayamatta,” Luna called back through the com.

“Who is that?” Pet asked. “A friend? Someone important on Cerulea 2? A colleague? Maybe someone who runs the satellite station? Or is—?”

“Pet!” Impatience welled up in Luna. Now was not the time for her assistant’s rapid-fire questions and barely suppressed hyperactivity. At the wounded look on the tiny Ripstinger’s face, Luna wilted. “I’m sorry. It’s just that going back to the DEA is very stressful for me.” She offered her an apologetic expression. “I’ll try not to snap at you so much. And Cayamatta is the representative from Cerulea 2 with whom I have always worked regarding the taxation of the planet.”

An award-winning smile accompanied Pet’s next question. “So what did this Cayamatta leave for you?”

Luna looked around. At first she didn’t see anything other than the shiny clean equipment inside their chamber, but then something on the floor caught her eye. She leaned over and studied a black gooey substance. The little one inch by one inch puddle rippled under her attention.

“Is that it?” Crack asked, dubious. “A wad of something sticky off someone’s shoe?”

With the tip of her index finger, Luna delicately touched the tiny pool of ebony substance. It swirled up and around her finger to quickly resume its flat and gooey form.

“Did you find it?” the voice burst from the com.

“Cay, is this some sort of joke?” Luna asked. “The only thing I see is a bit of what looks like tar on the floor.”

“Wait, you’ll see!”

The gleeful way Cay replied to Luna pushed a finger of unease up and then down her spine. Cay was never excited or gleeful about anything. She was a calm, rational, easygoing Cerulean.

“Have you touched it?” Cay asked. “Go on! Touch it!”

The blob grew in size and circumference until it was about six inches across. It pushed upward from there, forming an object that resembled a familiar body part.

Pet giggled.

“Fuck me,” Crack muttered.

“Well?” Cay prompted through the com.

“It looks like a cock, so what?” Luna returned, deadpan.

“The de-pressurizing has completed, but you have your privacy for fifteen minutes,” Cay said.

“Hardly. I’m in here with my assistant and my partner.”

A loud beep startled everyone, and the door to the pressure chamber disengaged. A tall female with light-blue skin and darker blue hair appeared in the widening doorway.

“Come, you two.” She pointed at first Pet then Crack. “Give Luna her space.”

Luna motioned toward Crack. “He can stay.”

“As you wish.” Cay put her arm around Pet’s shoulders. “Come, wee one. We will find you something lovely to drink while you wait.”

Luna kept her attention on Cay’s eyes. The willowy Cerulean wouldn’t look directly at her for long, but her eyes still shone too brightly. This was a different Cayamatta.

The door shut again, and the chamber fell silent. Luna stared at the blob-turned- cock jutting from the floor. It gleamed wetly, enticing her, its shape begging her to slide it through her folds and into her body. Upon touching the head, Luna found it smooth and warm, just like a flesh-and-blood member. A subsequent heat flared in her pussy. Might as well take Cay up on her offer.

She stood over the cock, her boots planted on either side of it, its root base seemingly adhered to the floor, and looked at Crack. I’m going to ride this thing,” she said, “and blow you at the same time. Sound good?”

“Sounds fantastic.” He grinned, revealing his fangs.

She lowered herself to her knees then positioned herself over the shiny cock. She was about to experience whatever this contraption really was and hoped it was worth it. When the tip of the warm cockhead touched her bare pussy lips, the rod pulsed. Tingles flowed into her cunt. She used her hand to pull the slit of her shorts wider and moaned as the rod glided between her folds. Feeling bold, she sheathed the cock in one motion. She sucked in a sudden, delighted breath.

Crack moved over next to her, his raging hard-on already out of his pants and his second cock quickly growing just above it. She kept herself from humping the dick inside her and took Crack’s member into her mouth as much as she could. She gripped his upper dick in her palm and pumped it over and over. Crack growled his approval low in his throat.

In time to her slow mouth motions, Luna rode the artificial penis on the floor. She put the DEA assignment out of her head and concentrated on the pleasure building in her core as well as the pleasure she was giving Crack. She shoved her worries about repeating past mistakes to the back of her mind and thrilled in the member that seemed to be growing larger and longer inside her.

She slid her mouth farther along Crack’s length until his monstrous cockhead nudged the back of her throat. Fighting the gag reflex, she relaxed her throat, allowing him to go deeper.

“Urgh, yes!” he grumbled.

Air became precious, and she released him long enough to fill her lungs then took him in her mouth again, his length throbbing as he struggled to maintain control. At the same time, she ground against the cock on the floor. The rod inside her throbbed and, with a start, she discovered more black ooze had spread from the ebony cock and was now expanding up her thighs and across the floor in front of her and behind her. She released Crack’s dick from her mouth again and looked down to find a humanoid forming under her. Too turned on to care, she sucked Crack once more, lightly raking her teeth over his skin and pumping his second cock even harder. She tasted his pre-cum, which was a combination of salt and, strangely enough, pepper. Crack gripped her hair and guided her in. She opened her mouth wide and deep-throated his member.

With cock in her mouth and in her pussy, Luna relished every moment and gave herself over to the sensations cascading through her body. Her tits tingled, the nipples so hard she wondered if they would pop off. Her pussy throbbed, and more fluid leaked out of her with each of her hip thrusts. More pre-cum oozed from Crack’s second cock, then suddenly he stiffened and howled his release as his cum filled her mouth and throat so much it spilled from the corners of her lips and dripped onto her cleavage.

At the same time, the spring snapped inside Luna and the semi-rhythmic spasms inside her turned into full-blown fluttering that had her grinding like mad as she swallowed Crack’s jizz.

Warm sticky hands on her thighs gently aided her humping. She spat out cock and allowed Crack to stagger back. He saw the humanoid beneath her, let out a startled shout, and fell onto one of the benches, his yellow eyes wide. She looked down at the humanoid who had fully formed now, its royal purple eyes like big, twinkling amethysts, its smile brilliant white against its shiny ink-like face. She kept grinding in its lap, wave after wave of hot pleasure coursing through her core and into her inner thighs then upward to bring her nipples to painful points.

The humanoid stiffened then bucked as though possessed. Luna gasped, fearing she’d be unseated, but the humanoid held her fast. He pistoned hard, stabbing her core smoothly. Warmth and coolness simultaneously bathed her channel, setting off a chain of mini orgasms that raced through her so quickly Luna could barely catch her breath.

“Ohhhh…”

As she fell to one side, Luna wanted to lie there and just admire the creature’s sleek, shiny lines, the way it reflected the objects around it, and the brilliance of its jewel-like eyes and blinding smile, but as quickly as the humanoid had formed, it soon retracted and became nothing more than a black smudge of goo on the metal floor.

“What”—Crack sat back, panting—“the fuck was that thing?”

“I have no idea,” she gasped out then rolled on her back. She stared up at the smooth curved ceiling. “I’ve never seen anything like that before, but it was wonderful.”

An amused snort from Crack was his only reply.

“It was new and exciting, so I’ll have to look into this”—she gestured toward the little black smudge—“and find out if it’s new sex technology, a living organism, or alien.”

The door leading into the satellite station opened.

“Luna?” Pet said. “You done in there?”

“We’re both fucked,” Crack said. His deep laughter echoed oddly in the chamber.

“I need a change of clothes,” Luna said tiredly.

“I’m sure Cay has something ready for you,” Pet said, letting the door swing wider, “but I think there’s something wrong with her. Hell, I think there’s something wrong with everyone on this station.”

Luna sat up and grimaced at the mess of cum seeping between her breasts and soiling her jacket lapels. “Why do you say that, Pet?”

“Everyone here is high.” She stood in the doorway, her expression worried. “Extremely high.”

“I’ll be out in a couple minutes.” Luna rolled up onto her knees, the floor painfully hard after her rigorous fucking.

Crack held out a big hand. She took it, and he tugged her to her feet. She flicked her gaze at his lap then back to his eyes, indicating he was still exposed.

As he righted himself and sealed the adhesive strip to his pants, she asked, “So far I’ve seen only two peckers on you. What about the other two?”

“I can grow them in the same area,” he told her and stood, “but I have no cause to use them unless I’m fucking a female Fire Heathen.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Unless you’d like to give them a go.”

“I prefer to keep my pussy intact, thank you.”

His roaring laughter followed her out of the pressure chamber.

Bertha sat at her jade table and admired the tea sets placed in front of her on the clear pearl tabletop. She’d like to purchase them all, but had to think it through rationally. One set was fine bone china done in pale lavender with delicate violets in deep purple and little vines twining about the glaze in dark and light green. The other collection gleamed in all white, similar to a pot and cups she already owned but still lovely nonetheless. The third was a pink teapot edged in what the antiques dealer assured her was real gold, but was accompanied by only two matching cups. The broker swore the pot and cups came from Josephine Bonaparte’s personal service. The price he was asking nearly made Bertha wet herself. Still, a historical fine bone china artifact from the 1700s from Earth? That made the set a museum piece, one she couldn’t pass up, if the dealer’s claims were true.

“Madame,” Keet said from across the boudoir.

“Yes?” Bertha couldn’t take her gaze off the quaint little tea ensemble.

“We have a matter of the utmost importance that has come up.”

Waving her hand dismissively, Bertha said, “In a moment, Keet. When one plans on spending vulgar amounts of money, one must be certain the merchandise”—she looked up at the burly dealer with vengeance in her eyes should he attempt to fleece her—“is truly worth the quoted sum, Mr…?”

He smiled patiently back at her. “Mr. Redgiant,” he told her for the third time. “Why don’t you just call me Quasar?”

“Madame, I don’t wish to displease you,” Keet pressed worriedly, “but if you would just peek over your shoulder?”

Annoyed, Bertha sighed heavily, glanced over at Keet, then turned and looked over one plump shoulder at the mood wall. She groaned. The dark swirly colors told her all she needed to know. Something was terribly wrong.

To the broker she said, “I’m interested in the pink and gold pot, but I wish for another opinion to guarantee its origin and worth. The other broker is available tomorrow, so meet me here at the same time to negotiate further. I have a bag of minerals at the front desk that will serve to hold my potential purchase. Is that acceptable?”

“Yes, Madame Bendlight. It is excellent.” He carefully placed the antiques into a case full of light-weight shipping gel that suspended the china away from the other pieces and protected them from any hard jolts that could break them. “Perhaps I could knock off a couple hundred zips if you are willing?” He offered her a seductive grin.

Bertha tipped her head to one side. “How so?”

“I love curvaceous females,” the dealer said sincerely, lust heavy in his voice.

“A couple hundred zips still isn’t enough to put a dent in the exorbitant price you’re quoting for that set,” Bertha told him, her tone all business. Still, he had intrigued her with his naughty proposition. And she did find him attractive in a debonair way. She scooted her chair back, drew her gown up over her legs, and allowed her thighs to part widely. “But your offer does sweeten the…pot.”

Mr. Redgiant left the case on the tabletop then moved over to kneel between Bertha’s thick thighs. “Oh, how I love painted pussies. The blues and pinks yours is done with are so lovely…”

Bertha chuckled, her deep, belly-roll laughter flustering the broker. However, she caught her assistant’s venomous expression directed at the dealer.

“What’s going on, Keet?” Bertha asked. She let her head fall back against the chair’s high back and sighed. The man’s hot breath flowing over her folds both relaxed and excited her. “You seem especially”—she gasped as he flicked his tongue over her clit—“stressed about something, and the mood wall’s dark colors are troubling.”

Keen strode over but maintained a respectful distance so as not to disturb the dealer’s ministrations. “You are now officially under investigation for lacing your Femdrene with an illegal substance.”

“Oh?” Placing her hand on the dealer’s head, she threaded her fingers into his long salt-and-pepper mane.

“Aren’t you concerned?” Keet asked, the stress in her voice mounting.

“It’s not the first time I’ve been investigated,” Bertha said and sucked in an excited breath. “I’ve done nothing to the Fe-adrene we mine and process, so why should I worry about an investigation?” At the nip of the broker’s teeth on her clit, she squealed then shivered. “The only thing I can actually”—she gulped and scooted her ass to the edge of the chair—“be nailed for is…” A string of throaty moans escaped her before she could compose herself. Once she had, she thought better of how she would convey her meaning to Keet in case the broker wasn’t trustworthy. “UA can’t tie me to anything to charge me.” She tossed a meaningful look up at Keet, who nodded. “All they have is suspicion.”

When the broker delved his long serpentine tongue into her hole, using it just like a cock, Bertha turned lax and pumped her hips. He let out several pleased growls, gripped her hips tightly, then mashed his face into her pussy. She squealed and humped his face, and the sensation of his thick tongue inside her sent her spiraling higher until her inner walls fluttered harder and harder. The orgasm hit her with force, and she bucked against the dealer’s face, his nose rubbing over her clit so that sparks of sensation enhanced her completion. He kept his hands firmly on her hips to keep her semi-still, pumping his tongue in and out of her until she lay spent and sprawled in the chair.

“Oh my…” Bertha said in a throaty purr. “We may have to do that again tomorrow.”

The dealer straightened then rose to his feet. He withdrew an antibacterial handkerchief from his inner jacket pocket and wiped his face until the sheet of fibers had dissolved.

“My great-grandfather father was a Reptilian,” he said. “If you’re truly interested in more carnal pursuits, I’d love to show you what else I can do to pleasure you.”

“See you tomorrow, honey babe.” Bertha straightened her gown and righted herself in the chair. Waggling her fingers in farewell, she offered him a coy smile as he exited her boudoir.

“Madame, please.”

Bertha focused on Keet. “Why is everyone having meltdowns when I’m not adding anything illegal to the Femdrene?”

“No one wants to be investigated.” Keet offered her a patient smile, the crystal tooth glimmering dully. “And what if investigators also delve into the flesh trafficking? Someone could inadvertently slip up. And if UA shuts down your enterprises that means employees are without incomes—thousands of employees. What happens if someone is working against you in the Femdrene lab and—”

“All right, all right!” Standing, Bertha swayed slightly on her platform heels, her legs still weak from her fast, hard orgasm. “You do have a point.” She inhaled deeply, held the breath, then let it out in a rush. “I’m so fucking sick of always being under Universal Alliances’ scrutiny.” She stepped down and headed toward her misting tube. “I’ll look into the matter, and you continue doing the same, Keet. Keep me posted on anything new you may discover. Thank you for advising me on this. Send in my wardrobe aide, please.”

“Yes, Madame.”

Once Keet had left, it was only a couple of minutes before Bertha’s wardrobe assistant met her at the misting chamber. She helped Bertha disrobe and waited outside the shield as Bertha washed herself and cleansed her pussy.

Damn Luna Moonstone! That insufferable woman had to be the reason behind the investigation into her Femdrene business. Although Bertha did dabble in illegal activities, drugs had never enticed her. Ever since the drug ring massacred their rivals on Halo, its surrounding satellites, the neighboring space station orbiting the planet, and all the ships and shuttles for Halo, anyone convicted for anything drug related received an automatic life sentence on Purgatory 3.

Was it possible someone was using Bendlight Enterprises as a front for illegal substances through her Femdrene? If so, who would be crazy enough to do that?

Fuck, this new worry certainly killed her sweet oral sex buzz.

She finished her misting session and exited the booth into the arms of her assistant holding out a super soft and fluffy zote towel.

“Just lay out something silky and comfortable for me, please, Miyamiya.”

“Yes, Madame.” She sashayed to the back of the boudoir, her little round ass now blue beneath her tinted skirt.

Bertha thought about who the investigator could be and decided it had to be Lunatic. Luna had asked point blank about her black businesses. Maybe if Lunatic thought Bertha was truly trying to ferret out a mole in her Femdrene enterprise it would also serve in getting UA to drop its investigation of her trafficking flesh.

It was a long shot to use Lunatic that way and it actually be successful, but it was worth a try.

Chapter Eight

Everywhere Luna looked, someone was fucking someone else. Few bodies wore clothes, and almost everyone was whacked out of their brains on something. Those drinking liquor acted even worse.

“What the hell happened here?” Crack asked. “Obviously a drug, but which one?”

“Fe-adrene?” Pet offered.

“Fe-adrene alone doesn’t cause this behavior,” Luna replied. “This is something powerful.”

“A love drug?” Pet looked up at her. “Maybe something similar to Ecstasy the Earthers once used?”

“Studying drug history, Pet?” Luna asked with a slight smile.

The little Ripstinger shrugged. “Figured it would be good to bone up on it—no pun intended.”

Crack laughed.

“Fuck, Pet,” Luna said. “Don’t encourage him.”

He laughed harder.

She shook her head at the clusters of multiple sex partners writing on the floor and any other available surface, the aroma of sex palpable. Against the far wall of the lounge, a man rapidly thrust into a woman bent over another naked guy whom she was giving head. Someone behind them let loose with a string of groans and throaty expletives as they climaxed, followed by the squeals of a couple of women in the center of the floor. Two couples sprawled over a long lounger that lined another wall. A male screwed a woman lying on her back, and a female sat astride a man who reclined in a sitting position, her head back and mouth agape in ecstasy. The scene created a pang in Luna’s chest, the memory of Bob fisting her in the booth rising raw and vivid in her mind. The pain beneath her breasts amplified. Why had Bob refused to make love to her? And why the fuck was she thinking such things at a time like this?

“Luna! Did you enjoy the FG1?”

Grateful for the distraction, Luna turned to find Cayamatta, now naked save for a sparkling pussy cover, heading straight for her. Breasts jiggling, hips swaying, her light-blue skin almost silver beneath the soft glow of illumination rods hanging from the ceiling, the Cerulea 2 representative was certainly an erotic image to any interested male or female. The stark contrast of this Cay, compared to the one Luna knew, left her speechless.

She recovered herself and forced a calm expression to her face. Just in case the drug whizzing through everyone’s systems made them prone to fits of anger, Luna decided to play the gracious role.

“FG1, Cay?” Luna queried.

“Oh, yes. FG stands for Fucking Goo.” The enthusiasm Cayamatta had for telling the story was a bit on the creepy side. “It’s part of a Bendlight Enterprises prototype shipment. There were twelve FG1s on the way to Mars, but our satellite station sent out a fighter vessel to intercept the shipment. The scant crew was held at particle point and brought on board. We’ve had much fun fucking the FG1s, and now even the shipment crew are enjoying the sex.”

“Fighter vessel?” Incredulous, Luna straightened her stance in case she inadvertently provoked Cay. “When did Cerulea 2 obtained military ships?”

“Oh, we’ve always had them in the event we are attacked.” Cayamatta giggled prettily and slapped one hand over her mouth as if to hold in her mirth. “We just didn’t see the need to tell UA.”

Inwardly, Luna groaned. This wasn’t good. Now there were unreported assets with which to contend, but she reminded herself she was no longer a lead investigator of taxation.

“Are you under the influence of a drug?” Crack questioned Cayamatta.

“Of course!” The Cerulean representative swayed, caught herself before she fell face-first, then waved a hand dismissively in Crack’s direction. “We’re not sure where it came from, but it is most delightful.” She giggled again, her peals of laughter escalating until tears leaked from her eyes and it took her a long moment to compose herself. When she finally did, she said, “I’ve never felt so carefree in my life.” She sucked in an abrupt breath and looked at Luna, fear in her eyes. “I suddenly don’t feel so well, my friend.” She toppled forward and lay with her head to one side, arms akimbo.

Crack squatted next to her, shook her, then patted her face. “Deeyada,” he said in his language. “Deeyada, wake up.” Placing two big fingers behind Cayamatta’s upturned ear, he felt for her pulse. He shot a concerned gaze at Luna. “She’s dead.”

“Oh, no,” Pet exclaimed softly, eyes wide with surprise. “If whatever they’ve ingested, inhaled, eaten, drank, or shot up with kills like this, we may have a mass death on our hands.”

Dread wedged in Luna’s gut. Whatever was happening, it went well beyond the small satellite station. She stared down at Cayamatta. Sadness clenched her heart. She’d known Cay for a long time, ever since Luna had started working for the taxation department. Cay preferred females and had tested the waters with Luna once. Although Luna occasionally enjoyed a woman, she was primarily heterosexual. The memory of Cay straining against Luna’s hand rose unbidden.

“Oh…” Cay whispered. “That’s nice.”

Luna stroked in and out of Cay’s passage, her hot, tight channel clenching around Luna’s fingers, Cay’s cunt soft under her palm. Thrusting her hips, Cay grasped Luna’s other hand and directed it to one of her breasts.

“Rub, please.”

Complying, Luna did her best to please Cay. She had no sexual interest in her friend, but the Cerulean had taken her rejection harder than Luna had thought possible. Cay was lovely, her light-blue skin appealing to the eyes, her hair a deeper blue, and pure indigo where it thinly covered her sex. Yet Luna just wasn’t attracted to her.

Rhythmic pulses inside Cay alerted Luna that her friend was nearing completion. Then, abruptly, Cay stiffened, raising her hips off her office sofa, the muscles inside her clamping hard on Luna’s fingers as she climaxed.

Spent, Cay lay panting. “Thank you, Luna. But you won’t be offended if I still try to entice you?”

“Not at all as long as you won’t be offended when I continue to turn you down.”

“I’ll settle for a finger-fuck any time,” Cay said, laughing.

Now, her friend lay sprawled on the floor with ongoing orgies surrounding her, her life ended, her brightness and sweet, calm manner silenced forever.

Luna snapped back to herself and turned away from the sight of her friend’s corpse. “Pet, contact UA and have them send in an emergency force as well as cleanup teams,” Luna said around a hard lump in her throat. “Advise them of the situation, have them send their best forensics team, and tell UA we’re flying down to the planet’s surface. Ask to have backup on standby, too, should we need it.”

Nodding vigorously, Pet withdrew her stylus from inside her jacket and hurried in the direction of the pressure chamber where it would be quieter to make her connection with UA.

“Pet?” Luna called.

Her assistant paused and looked over her shoulder.

“Make sure to also advise UA that the other satellite check-in points will require boarding and investigation as well.”

“Right away.”

“I’ll see about getting a transport down to the planet,” Crack said.

“Good. Also, keep your neuralstun”—Luna patted hers for reassurance—“on stun only, unless potential attackers need a stronger pulse. I don’t want to kill anyone, but we have no idea what the situation is on the surface.”

“Noted.” He strode toward the check-in post where the guards were busy fucking each other.

If the situation on the planet was as bad as, or worse, than it was at this satellite outpost, she hoped the various divisions of UA wouldn’t arrive too late to help the Ceruleans. Luna didn’t often pray, but this time she offered up a plea to whatever power might be listening.

Not one representative, diplomat, check-in clerk, or even a server from any of the restaurants or bars was in the receiving port. As Luna and her companions investigated the premises, their footsteps echoed up and down the empty causeways and spacious auditoriums.

“What the fuck?” Crack muttered. He scanned the hub shared by three saloons. “Where did everyone go?”

“My guess is wherever the drugs are,” Luna said.

To their right, a storefront shimmered with an advertisement for a half-off sale on clothing. Luna strode over to it, passed through the ad shimmer, and entered the store, looking for a clean outfit that would suit her. She let her gaze wander over the vacant establishment. In the back, another ad shimmer declared that misting fragrances were also on sale. A hovering rack held an array of crotchless shorts. In no time, Luna found a pair that fit her perfectly. She shed all her clothes, even peeling off her adhesive bra, and stood naked in the middle of the store.

“Now that’s what I call a perfect body,” Crack said behind her.

“Hands off,” she said, her tone clipped. “As much as I enjoy sex, we have a job to do, but I can’t do it with your cum all over my clothes.”

His laughter rolled through the clothing racks. “One thing I like about you, Luna—besides your gorgeous body—is your blunt way of speaking. Reminds me of females on Flameshot 7. It’s nice.”

She snorted. “You’re one of the few who feels that way. Most of the time I piss people off.”

If they were trading compliments there was one thing she liked about Crack—his massive cocks aside—and that was his incredibly deep, rumbling laughter. Somehow it helped take the edge off her nerves whenever he chuckled.

Hastily choosing a new adhesive bra, Luna shouldered into it and pressed the tiny button on the side to activate it. The shiny clear substance swept around her ample bosom and pulled it in tightly. She pawed through another hover rack of jackets and found one that was longer than she liked but still stylish. It brushed the tops of her knee-high boots. She strapped on her gun belt, made certain the neuralstun was secure, and spun toward the checkout box. It didn’t take her long to input the items she was purchasing, then she swiped the pad of her right pinky finger over the payment sensor and transferred the total of 120 zips from her bank account to cover her purchases.

“Let’s go,” she said.

Crack escorted her back through the ad shimmer into the concourse where a whirring noise drew their attention. They both turned at the same time to find Pet approaching them on a transport plate.

“Thought we might need something to cover ground faster,” she said.

“Good idea.” Luna stepped up onto the thin sturdy platform. She patted Pet on the shoulder and earned a huge smile and several quick hops in place from her.

Crack joined them, and Pet maneuvered the plate through the port until they reached an exit. The quiet of the facility unnerved Luna. She’d often heard the term ‘ghost town’ adopted from old Earther terminology. Now she truly understood what it meant.

“What does deeyada mean?” Pet asked Crack.

He waved one big hand in circles, his claws catching the dying light of the setting sun, as he thought for a few moments. “It serves many purposes such as a replacement for ma’am, miss, young lady, madame…”

“Oh, like niknik in Ripstinger,” Pet said.

Luna tuned them out. She tried to keep her mind on the investigation, but fear kept rearing its ugly head. What if she snapped again? What if she had to kill someone to protect herself, Crack, or Pet? Taking life wasn’t something to dismiss lightly. The people she’d killed still frequented her nightmares.

Then there was the shipping vessel the Ceruleans had commandeered. Although Bendlight Enterprises was known for its SSes and other sex technologies, the fact that the FG1s had been intercepted couldn’t be a simple coincidence, could it?

As their plate sped past the rolling blues of the landscape and clusters of habitations, Luna couldn’t shake the sensation that somehow, someway or another, Bodacious Bertha was tied to what was currently happening on Cerulea 2. If and how the FG1s were tied to it, Luna had no clue, but the Fe-adrene mines and rumors of Bertha’s tampered version, Femdrene, shouted for Luna to delve deeper into the matter. Without a doubt, she’d discover that Bertha played a vital part in the total debauchery sweeping Cerulea 2 and its holdings.

Pet handed the navigation rod over to Crack. She knelt by the panel at the front and brought up a satellite image of the planet, then located the mineral mines.

“There are two Fe-adrene mines on Cerulea 2,” she said. “I’m inputting the coordinates for the nearest one now.”

The ride to the mine lasted only a few minutes. Expecting to see a mountain, it surprised Luna to instead find a platform on a plateau built around a shaft going straight down into the planet. No guards greeted them. Not one miner was in sight.

“This is eerie,” Luna said to herself.

“It is,” Crack responded. “I am afraid we may be too late to help people.”

“I hope you’re wrong,” she replied.

Crack got off the plate and called the elevator to take them down into the earth. It took a long time to reach the top.

“A two-mile ride on a lift straight down takes a while,” Pet said. “You’d think there’d be better technology for reaching minerals and resources in mines, but it’s still done here much like it was on Earth in the coal belts. Mars and V29 Stasis are the same way, too.”

As they lowered into the earth, Pet handed them respirators and gas monitor balls to clip on their clothes.

“How do you know about this stuff?” Crack asked her.

“Since I work for Luna I must educate myself on the areas and peoples we investigate. I studied up on Fe-adrene mining before we came here. The Cerulea 2 mines are so deep that gases seep up from the planet’s core. These vapors will kill us, so keep an eye on your gas monitors. If the balls glow orange we need to head back up, but if they turn red, we’ll be dead in minutes if we don’t move to a safer area.”

“Gee, and I was worried about suicide orgies and crazed drug addicts,” Luna muttered.

They passed the next half hour in silence. Luna studied the scaffolding and supports lining the shaft, the walls twinkling with the silver of trace minerals, and wondered what they would encounter once they reached their destination. An image rose in her memory, one of a face that haunted her dreams.

He’d been bothering her all night, wouldn’t take no for an answer, and was so high he should’ve been floating against the ceiling. When she’d slapped his hand out of her cleavage, he’d attacked her.

With his nose a hair from hers, teethed bared, breath filthy with the scent of synthetic eekbot, the tiny nanobytes rushing over his lips and chin to fall off and onto the front of her jacket, he spun her around and pressed her to the bartop.

“You’re mine,” he snarled.

She pushed him back. He came at her again. She shoved him away a second time.

“If I can’t have you,” he snapped, “I’ll kill you!” He pulled out a particle weapon and aimed it at her.

In an instant, she brought up her neuralstun, slid her index finger over the kill sensor, and pressed the trigger pad. He flew onto his back, screaming in fury for a long moment, owing to the eekbot firing through his system, then lay still.

The others in the bar, all whacked out on eekbot and full of booze, erupted in chaos and rushed at her and her partner. She opened fire on two aliens who leaped at her, but her partner on his way to help her…

The elevator jarred at the bottom, nearly knocking them off their feet. The sudden stop startled Luna back to the present. Crack slid the gate back and exited first, motioning for her and Pet to wait while he assessed the corridor. He waved them out. They traversed one tunnel after another, hands on their weapons with Pet bringing up the rear.

“Where are the miners?” Pet asked.

“I’m betting we’ll find them in a chamber,” Luna answered, hating how the respirator made it difficult to talk, “and they’ll be together fucking one another’s brains out.”

She kept an eye on her gas ball, which maintained a steady sickly, pale yellow. So far so good.

They entered another passage that was narrower than the others. Crack barely fit, his shoulders brushing the walls and knocking dirt and shining flecks free as he squeezed through. After several yards, the tunnel opened up on a big chamber with a ceiling so low Crack had to squat. Behind him, Luna knelt, too, but not fast enough. She barked her forehead on the ceiling.

“Fuck me!” she snapped, the sting of the scrape abrupt and fiery.

Pet walked out of the tunnel and stood next to them fully upright. Although Luna was unable to see the big shit-eating grin on the Ripstinger’s face, it shone in her onyx eyes as she met Luna’s gaze and awaited instruction. Luna ignored her and followed Crack across the chamber, careful not to rise and whack her head on the ceiling again.

      The room sloped farther downward then opened into a bigger cavern where people lay sprawled naked from wall to wall. Some lay on top of others, some had slumped to the floor and sat propped against walls, heads tipped forward with chins on their chests, and others still in sexual positions.

A string of unintelligible words burst from Crack, but Luna didn’t need to ask what he’d said to know they were all expletives.

“Oh, Luna,” Pet said, her voice garbled in the mask. “This is…just… Oh my…” Her voice cracked.

“Don’t fret, little Petunia.” Patting her assistant’s leg, she found herself truly wanting to soothe her. “We can’t do anything for these miners, but we’ll figure this out and stop it.”

Nodding, Pet tried fluttering her neck wings, but they were hindered by the respirator’s strap. Instead, she sucked in several big gulps of air, her breathing and tears fogging her eye screen.

“Oh, don’t cry.” Scooting closer to her, Luna pondered why Pet’s distress bothered her so much. “You can’t do anything to help, so let’s figure out how we can keep this from happening to anyone else okay? Focus on that, Pet.”

“Yes. Yes.” She kept nodding and hopped in place just enough to seem as though she were vibrating. “Focus on stopping this from hurting others. Yes…yes…”

“Is she going to be okay?” Crack asked over his shoulder. “We need her help.”

“I’ll be fine!” Pet insisted.

Luna scrabbled over to Crack. “You don’t know much about Ripstingers, do you?”

He stared at her with concern in his yellow eyes. “No.”

“They are empathetic, full of surprises, and fiercely protective of those they care about. Give her a few minutes.”

He dipped his head in acknowledgement then crawled over to investigate the bodies as Luna moved in a different direction to do the same.

Respirators lay helter-skelter. Gas monitor balls were heaped in the center of the room, the entire pile glowing orange. Looking down at hers, where it hung from the clasp on her lapel, Luna grimaced at the soft peach.

“Luna,” Pet said loudly, “how far do you think this goes?”

“What do you mean?” She swept her gaze over the bodies in hopes of finding survivors then turned to look over at her assistant.

“Do you think this incident”—Pet gestured at the corpses lying in every direction—“is localized or worldwide?”

Where he knelt by a trio of bodies, Crack barked out what sounded like a curse word then said, “UA will have its hands tied dealing with the planet governments if that is the case. All worlds will worry the same might happen to them.”

Shock forced Luna’s mouth open, and a little gasp escaped her. “Fuck, I hadn’t considered it might be the entire planet.” A shiver passed over her. “Let’s hope the mass deaths are confined to the space station, the local area, and the mine. If this is something that travels from world to world…” She couldn’t bear to consider the implications.

“Yeah,” Pet said sadly, “that in itself is horrific enough.”

The gas monitor hanging from Luna’s suit switched colors. “We need to get out of here,” she called out. “Our gas monitors are going orange. UA will have to wear full protective gear to even investigate.”

A nearby moan drew her attention over to a corridor leading off the chamber. A small humanoid stood leaning against the wall with a gloved hand over the mask’s mouthpiece. Dressed in protective coveralls and boots, the humanoid also wore gloves and a respirator with accompanying head gear. Luna shifted her attention to a group of cadavers at the humanoid’s feet. Judging by the mottled blue of a dead female’s skin, she appeared to be half Cerlulean and half Blugavian.

“You there,” Luna yelled. “What are you doing down here?”

“I was sent by Cerulea 2’s government headquarters with two others to investigate why the miners hadn’t returned.” The garbled tone caused by the head gear gave no clue if the person was male or female. “No one is alive. I got separated from my partners. The core is burping again, so the mine is filling with poison. These respirators are useless at filtering something so toxic, and my mouth piece is malfunctioning. We need to get out of here—now.”

Crack reached the person and helped them stagger across the chamber.

Luna climbed over the bodies to reach a spot where something sparkled. Uncertain what was drawing her, she finally located it. Purple sparkles lay twinkling in the hair of the Cerulean-Blugavian. She pinched one free and examined it. Little sparkles of purple lay on the ground, too, but didn’t seem to go any farther. Familiarity poked at her mind. Where had she seen something like this before?

“Luna!” Crack hollered. “We need to leave.”

She turned and scrambled back over the bodies.

They squeezed down the previous passage and made their way back, following the same route. They finally reached the lift and stepped on board. Luna’s ball had deepened in orange and so had everyone else’s. Their new companion lay against the wire wall as they ascended to the surface. Looking down at the person still holding her mouthpiece together with one hand, Luna understood how the humanoid felt. She didn’t feel the greatest herself. Even Pet and Crack appeared weary, unsteady, and frighteningly pale.

At the surface, UA people intercepted them.

She held up her credentials shield, which glowed brightly in the fading light. “They’re with me,” she said, pointing to Crack and Pet.

A person in a bright-green hazmat suit took Luna by the elbow. “This way, please,” a muffled non-gender voice said through the voice processor. “You’re all to be checked over before you can proceed any farther. There is a clinic bubble this way.”

With investigation and emergency teams swarming around them, Luna allowed the medic to lead her away. She didn’t want to go with her, wishing to keep track of the humanoid who had come above ground with them, but as she surveyed the mass of people rushing to and fro on the scene, she realized she’d already lost track of the rescued person. Everyone wore the local mines’ respirator gear or hazmat suits, so she had no way to pick the person out of the crowd.

“Agent Moonstone,” a male voice said. “Once you’re cleared by the medics you can come with me. We’ll get you into one of the habitations nearby that we’ve scoured, and you can all recover and rest for a spell.”

About an hour later, Luna and her companions were given clean bills of health then were hustled inside a security ship. As they lifted off and flew across the landscape, the lovely blues of the planet turned steadily black in the deepening twilight.

Pet contacted Stellarman about the possibility of a pan epidemic, and he authorized more UA people to land on other sections of Cerulea 2 to investigate. Luna prayed the event was localized, but a sick feeling in her gut told her otherwise.

Chapter Nine

“I’ve had enough of your shit!” Luna snapped at the Blugavian staring down at her. “You intercepted me upon arriving at our lodging and have kept me here for two Cerulean days just to keep asking the same fucking questions! In those ninety-six hours, you’ve barely fed me, and I’ve had very little to drink. All you’re doing is hindering our investigation.” She glared up at Senior Agent Morrin. “I am not repeating myself anymore!”

Morrin looked at her as though he hadn’t heard a word. “Agent Moonstone, were all the people on the satellite station dead upon boarding it?”

She continued glaring at him.

“Agent Moonstone, were all the people—”

“Fuck off, Agent Moron!”

He closed his eyes for a moment. A slight tremor rushed over his body. Upon opening his eyes again, he said, “My name is Morrin.”

“No, only a moron would be so fucking stupid.” She jumped up from her chair.

“Return to your seat, Agent Moonstone. I’m not finished with you yet,” he said forcefully.

“Tough zote shit! I’m finished with you.” She opened the door to find Stellarman on the other side. She faltered, uncertain whether to return to the table or stand her ground.

“Moonstone,” he greeted her calmly. “Your partner and assistant are waiting for you outside. I’ll handle Agent”—he lowered his voice and leaned in close to her —“Moron.”

Startled by his rare display of humor, she smiled. “Thank you.”

She strode through the little habitat and out onto a blue-bricked patio.

“Luna!” Pet cried from where she sat on a floating bench. She jumped up and rushed over to her, neck wings a blur, her entire body vibrating with excitement. She wrapped her arms around Luna’s waist and squeezed.

“Pet, no hugging.”

“Oh, sorry!” She backed away a few steps and stood jumping in place, her neck wings now fluttering so fast they emitted a high-pitched whine. “What happened? Why did Agent Morrin hold you for questioning for so long? No one would tell us anything. They wouldn’t even let us back in the habitat, so me and Crack had to move to a different one. I think Agent Morrin is a jerk. A great big, blue—”

“You okay?” Crack asked, rising from the same bench.

“Yes, I’m fine. Pissed off, but fine.” Closing her eyes, Luna tried to calm herself. What she really wanted to do was walk back inside and kick Morrin’s narrow ass.

“So what’s the deal?” Crack asked. He stood within a couple feet of her. “What’s with the interrogation?”

“Morrin is the same agent who arrested me for the shooting at the Lightspeed Lounge.” She sighed in disgust. “He was convinced I deliberately killed my partner, who happened to be his brother-in-law, so he’s had it out for me ever since. He thought I should be sentenced to Purgatory 4, and when the jury acquitted me, he had to be subdued and confined until he’d calmed down.”

Shivering, Pet said, “Purgatory 4 is where all the murderers are imprisoned.”

Luna ignored her and let Crack lead her over to a hover plate. She stepped up on it and waited for her companions. “I just want a good meal and some uninterrupted sleep.”

“Our other habitat is well-stocked,” Pet told her as she boarded. “And it has lots of hot water pumped up from the heated springs, so you can take a bath and relax. You’ve had a rough two days.”

Crack took the control rod and guided the plate over the paths of indigo bricks that led through the cluster of homes.

“We’ll fill you in later on what we’ve learned,” he said. “After what you just told me about Morrin, my guess is the agent thinks you’re an easy nityitma for what happened on Cerulea 2 and its surrounding stations.”

She glowered at him. “English, Crack.”

“Nityitma—what you call a goat scape.”

“You mean scapegoat,” she corrected. “Is what happened in the mine confined to that one chamber and the space station or is it elsewhere, too?”

“Everyone is dead, Luna,” Pet told her. “Investigation teams have been landing in all the towns and cities, even checking the little out-of-the-way communities, and the reports are all the same. Universal Alliances is talking genocide.”

She whirled to face Pet. “Everyone?”

Pet nodded, tears shining in her eyes. “The only Ceruleans left are a few hundred people, some children, and those who live off the planet. Whoever did this almost succeeded in eradicating the Cerulean race.”

Weakness gripped Luna’s knees. Nauseated, she closed her eyes and willed the stinging in them to go away. A warm hand landed on the back of her neck. She looked up to find Crack offering her a sympathetic expression.

Luna didn’t ask any more questions. Right now she just wanted to clear her mind and relax, reboot her brain so she could find a way to deal with the knowledge of the plant-wide deaths.

At their habitat, Pet showed her the bath built into the rocks where a hot spring burbled up into it. She left Luna to her own devises, muttering something about a meal and fresh clothes for Luna once she was finished.

Steam wafted through the room. The outer windows facing the back lawn trickled with condensation that dripped into an array of blue foliage and tiny periwinkle flowers. Luna removed her clothes and placed her weapon on the edge of the rock bath. She settled into the water with a few sharp inhales at the heat. A carved section of seats provided a place to recline, and she lay back with her neck in a smooth crevice filled with padding gel. The warmth and bubbling of the spring soothed her frazzled mind and eased her tense muscles.

Purple sparkles winked in her mind’s eye. Why the fuck did the violet twinkling substance on the dead female’s hair and on the ground keep popping into her head? Even while being interrogated, Luna had kept going back to the purple crystal-like pieces she’d seen on the female cadaver.

“Pet says your favorite drink is Event Horizon.”

She started and splashed water, some of it going up her nose. She sputtered and coughed.

“Don’t fall asleep in there,” Crack admonished, eyes flaring bright yellow. “Wouldn’t want you to drown.”

“I’m so exhausted.” She coughed again then sneezed water out of her sinuses. Looking up at Crack, she found him grinning down at her.

“Feel better?”

She lay back again. “Never would I have imagined my past would get tied to what has happened on Cerulea 2.”

He sat on the edge of the rock and handed her the drink which had already been liquefied. “You’re speaking of Senior Agent Morrin?”

She nodded as she sipped.

“Tell me what happened,” he said. “Maybe you need to talk about it, get it off your chest.” He glanced at her boobs then waggled his eyebrows. “Might make you feel better.”

As she took a drink, a snort burst from her, pushing the whiskey’s fumes into her eyes. “My partner, Teleker, and I were investigating a drug hub. We’d been following leads for several Wavelength months then got a tip that it was, indeed, the Lightspeed Lounge, as we’d suspected. It was known for churning out eekbot. Turns out our tip was correct, but while we were there, the men went from rowdy to worse. They wouldn’t keep their hands off the strippers, so when the owner canceled the remaining sets until the patrons settled down, they turned their attention to me and a few other females.” She finished the drink and set it on the edge of the rock. “One guy had been hitting on me all night, and each time I turned him down, he got more insistent. He nearly ripped my top off, so we had a brief altercation where I pushed him away from me harder than I’d intended. He pretty much lost his mind. The addict pulled a particle weapon on me. I believed he fully intended to kill me, so I shot him first.”

“And that’s where things turned to pure shit, right?” Crack dropped another liquor pellet into her glass. “And I’m guessing Teleker came to your aid but got in the way?”

She leveled her gaze on him. “How’d you know? Did you read up on my case?”

He shook his head, dipped a finger into the water, then let the moisture drip off it to activate the pellet. “I’ve been working for the DEA for a couple of Wavelength years. UA goes through a lot of agents, Luna. Drugs in the various galaxies have gone from being a problem to an epidemic. Don’t you know the DEA has the highest mortality rate of any other government job?”

She accepted the tumbler, pausing with it up to her lips. “I know it was bad then, so it doesn’t surprise me that it’s worse now.”

“More like a thousand times worse—at least since I joined the agency.”

“Well, Agent Morrin thinks I deliberately shot his brother-in-law and that I used the battle in the Lightspeed Lounge as an opportunity to pick him off.”

“Why?”

“We were both up for the same promotion which came with a big jump in pay. Agent Teleker got it and I didn’t. I was fine with UA’s decision. It’s just me, and my mom lives on Earth, so I have no one to support. I move from place to place, which means I really don’t need a home, a transport, or any of the things most people want once they settle somewhere. Morrin didn’t believe it. He said I was pissed that I didn’t get the promotion and killed my partner for it.”

“What a load of flaming zote shit,” Crack said. “He just wanted someone to pin the blame on.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. Morrin wasn’t even concerned about the other people who were killed or injured.” Taking another healthy mouthful of her drink, Luna held it a few seconds and let it singe her taste buds. She swallowed and reveled in the burn down her throat, followed by the detonation in her belly. With her eyes watering, she met Crack’s gaze, the flickering flames in his yellow orbs leaping higher. “When I was acquitted, Morrin swore he’d make me pay somehow. Looks like he’s finally found his opportunity.”

“Stellarman was furious when he found out why you hadn’t checked in with him. I didn’t hear all that he said when he arrived to assess the situation, but I doubt Morrin will have a job after this.” Chuckling, he added, “Pet’s pretty good at guiding people to the assumptions she wants them to think, too.”

“Oh? Well, it’s not surprising. She has always regarded me as this super heroine for some reason. The longer I work with her, the more thankful I am that I was talked into taking her on with me.” The moment she said the words, she realized she really meant them. She thought of Morrin again and shrugged. “The downside is that after Stellarman gets done with Morrin, Morrin will be even more determined to finish me off.” She knocked back her drink, the alcohol hurtling through her system. “Take your clothes off and fuck me.”

He grinned. “Are you sure this is what you want? You’re upset.”

Laughter burst from her. “You’re a contradiction in terms.”

He furrowed his brow and tipped his head to one side. “What do you mean?”

“You present yourself as this huge Fire Heathen with a don’t-piss-with-me attitude, and you are a real smartass, and smug, and you think you’re the universe’s gift to all females, then”—she waved one hand in the air, water flying off her fingertips—“you’ll say or do something that says the total opposite, like now. You’re actually a softie, aren’t you?”

He kicked off his boots and finished disrobing. “No, I am an asshole. Just didn’t want you crying on my shoulder while I fuck you.”

“Right.” She smirked and set the tumbler on the tub’s edge.

Crack stepped into the water. Since this was the first time Luna had seen him fully naked, she let her gaze wander over his body. His wide shoulders and burly chest certainly conveyed the power that resided under his tan skin. A tattoo scarring of flames twined up his left side, across his abdomen and up his right pectoral. His main cock stood proudly, already oozing pre-cum. She gulped, remembering how she’d felt when he’d fucked her the first time.

“I want both your cocks,” she said.

He grinned wider, his fangs showing. “Wanting more punishment?”

“I like your form of punishment.”

He chuckled, the sound echoing in the rock chamber. He stepped closer, the water swirling at mid-thigh on him, his pubic hair as bright yellow as the hair on his head, legs thick with muscles. Before her eyes, his second cock formed above his first until it, too, stood eager and dripping for her.

“Come here,” he said.

He leaned over, gripped her by the waist, and hauled her out of the water. Instinctively, she snapped her legs around his waist. Keeping her supported, he slowly lowered her until the upper cock parted her pussy lips and his main cock pressed against her anus. Desire rushed through Luna. Both her orifices clenched in anticipation.

“Relax, bubbinyata,” he whispered. “I don’t want to hurt you or make you too sore.”

“See?” she whispered back. “Contradictions.”

“Shut up.” He lowered her onto his cocks. “I’m about to fuck you.”

As he penetrated her holes, she groaned at the combination of two huge rods, the stretching of her tissues, extreme fullness, and the burn of all three.

“Easy now,” he said. “Breathe through it.”

“So fucking big,” she gasped. “So fucking full…”

And still he stretched her ass and pussy. She whimpered, wondering if she could take any more of him and simultaneously telling herself that she’d been fucked by him before so she could do it again. After all, she was half Lustonian, designed for all sorts of lovemaking whether rough, easy, or even perverted. She told herself to let him do the work for her and tucked her head into the crook of his neck, her arms loose around his shoulders.

With a low rumble in his chest, Crack finished penetrating her. “You’re squeezing my cocks so tightly, bubbinyata. It’s heavenly torture. I want you so much I could fuck you through that stone wall.”

His words inflamed her need to move, to drive him deeper into her core, but as he turned with her and sat in the place she’d just been sitting, the water washed up and around her, distracting her, stinging her ass and cunt which were already stretched to their limits. Crack sat with his thighs wide and slipped his hands around her to cup her ass cheeks. The sensation of his hot, rough palms on her sensitive butt fired more desire through Luna. She wanted to move, wanted him to start thrusting, but reason told her she needed a bit longer to adjust to his size.

“Eager, bubbinyata?” he growled in her ear. “You must really need to relieve stress.”

He pumped into her, and she howled her delight. He moved both cocks in and out then back in again.

“Oh…” She bit down on his trap muscle.

An animalistic snarl burst from him, and he thrust in earnest.

“Don’t…want…to…hurt…you…”

“Just fuck me!” she snapped as pleasure and pain wound through her.

She loved every glorious inch of each cock. She relished the girth of them, how they stretched her until she should tear, and she wanted even more. She bounced in his lap, the hot spring splashing between their torsos and into her face, her boobs buoyed by the bathwater.

He forced her to sit with him fully inside her and bent her backward.

“Oh my god!” she cried.

The angle made him feel so different inside her, driving the rod up her asshole even farther, but the instant she tried to adapt to the bend in her body with his cocks stuffing her to the limit, he clamped down on one of her nipples, and her world shattered.

“Oh fuck!” she shrieked. “Oh! Oh!”

He kept licking then sucking on her nipple, the pull of his mouth on it rocketing pure sensation to her core where she clenched and ground the cock in her ass and the one in her pussy. She bucked and screamed, but Crack held her fast. He switched to the other nipple, doing the same sucking and tongue-flicking maneuvers. She screamed again, this time attempting to shove more of her ample breast into his mouth. His fangs raked her skin. A stinging sensation in her tit intensified her pleasure, and she tried rocking harder on his cocks, but still he held her firmly.

“Crack…please…”

He pumped into her, and she moaned, going lax in his arms. Driving faster into her, he bounced her on his lap, both cocks impaling her, piercing her body so that one hit the edge of her womb and the other slid through her chute to rub deliciously along her overfull passage. She wanted to explode, to come screaming until she was hoarse, to come so hard she passed out, totally sated.

He thrust faster, his fingers biting into her hips now, his snarls of pleasure drowning out her cries of passion. The coil inside her kept tightening, tightening. Her nipples burned with sensation. Her ass and cunt flamed and stung with the intrusions and friction, and still she couldn’t climax. The feelings kept growing stronger, harder, pulsing until she thought she’d shatter or go insane from the nonstop pleasure.

“Fuck…me…harder…”

He complied, nearly unseating her, but somehow he held on to her. Finally, he jerked her down hard onto his lap, his cocks seated balls deep in her and held her still.

The sudden fullness, the stretching, and no relief from it finally created a bomb of sensation that coiled more and more until she tried to raise herself for relief. Crack, unwilling to let her move, held her in place. With so much dick inside her, she climaxed. She threw her head back, boobs rising from the water, and screamed.

“Fuuuuccckkkk!”

The orgasm crashed through her with such intensity tears leaked from her eyes. Her anus muscles squeezed rhythmically and so hard around his dick he growled long and low in response. He pumped a few times, giving her blessed but brief relief from her overstuffed passages. Then, before she had a chance to relax, he stiffened, and his cocks throbbed, her insides attuned to every pulse sending his cum into her accepting body.

“Oh…oh yes, that’s it,” she shouted and rode him harder.

He grunted and thrust himself a little more forcefully as he coaxed the last few spurts into her.

She collapsed against him, water up to her nose, and sputtered in it, totally drained, her ass and pussy both thumping in pleasure-pain, and just enjoyed sitting in the bath with him still planted firmly inside her.

Chapter Ten

The kliteater purred sweetly and snuggled itself against Bertha’s massive boobs. She stroked her bare nails down its silky back as the manicurist bejeweled the nails on her other hand with new gemstones. Bertha glanced over her shoulder and across her boudoir as someone entered.

“Keet,” she called. “It’s good to have you back. What did you find out regarding my shipment of FG1 prototypes?”

The little Istokakian female crossed the big room, her heels clicking crisply until she reached the lush zote rugs scattered over the center of the chamber. She reached Bertha and stood behind her chair. Bertha looked over her shoulder and met her right-hand woman’s brilliant purple gaze. Instantly, she knew the news wasn’t good.

“Fuck,” Bertha grumbled. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”

“Worse than you can imagine,” Keet replied somberly. She swept one hand over her dark-gray skull ridge in agitation. “I don’t know where to begin.”

“Leave us,” Bertha instructed the nail technician. “I’ll call for you when we’re done here.”

“Yes, Madame.”

The kliteater snuggled farther down into Bertha’s dress front. Rising, she padded barefoot to the creature’s clear case and set it gently in its soft, clean bedding of dried flower petals and moss. The animal mewled in protest but waddled over to its water dispenser to lick at a moisture strip. For a moment, Bertha watched its little pink tongue flick out to catch the beads of water. Her innate sense about bad news kept growing more insistent. Normally she wouldn’t have sent her second-in-command on such a menial trip, but since no one else she’d sent had been able to locate the valuable shipment of the Fucking Goo prototypes that had gone missing, she’d finally relented and allowed Keet to investigate the problem in person. As always, Keet produced results. She stared at her right-hand woman. She couldn’t put off Keet’s report any longer.

“Drop your nuke on me, Keet.”

“The FG1s were intercepted at the Cerulean 2’s main satellite station.”

“Why?” Bertha wanted to whirl around and scream at her number one but kept reminding herself not to shoot the messenger.

“It appears all the Cerulean satellite stations, as well as the planet itself, were swept by a new drug.”

“Elaborate, Keet. I’m losing patience,” Bertha grumbled. She faced her second-in-command, her gaze then going to the mood wall which remained a lovely blend of bright pinks and sapphire blue, indicating the office atmosphere was still light and happy. Bertha wished her current mood matched it. “I’m assuming my prototypes have been used and I must contact the investors and explain that the shipment was hijacked?”

“Something like that, Madame.”

Slowly, Keet relayed what had happened to the shipment and the satellite station, as well as the planet. “The worst news isn’t the loss of the prototypes,” she finished.

Beyond frustrated, Bertha let out a high-pitched screech. “What else could possibly fuck up this day?”

She held up a hand, palm out. A moment. Bertha just needed a moment to compose herself and brace for the next strike. She returned to her seat at her cherished pearl-sliced table on its jade pedestal and swept her finger over a sensor on a nearby stand.

“Yes?” a voice asked.

“Whiskey,” Bertha barked. “A tumbler full of my best—no ice.”

“Right away.”

A couple of minutes passed with Keet waiting patiently until the servant brought Bertha’s glass full of a dark amber liquid then left. Bertha, keeping her gaze on her number one, took a long, deep gulp, then let the booze slide down her gullet.

“Finish your report,” she gasped through the burn.

“Fe-adrene was found in everyone’s systems,” Keet stated, “including the men for some reason, but it was laced with a new drug, something that made the Ceruleans and anyone else who happened to be on the satellite stations crazy with lust. They fucked until they literally died.”

“How can someone pin this on my Fe-adrene?” she countered. “Most pharmaceutical companies get their Fe-adrene from Cerulea 2!”

“The last shipment waiting to go out to your company for processing was laced with the chemical that made it toxic,” Keet explained, her voice quavering.

“But it wasn’t processed!” Bertha snapped. “It was in raw form, right?”

“That’s true, but it still points to Bendlight Enterprises regardless. It appears it was to look like the Fe-adrene was treated with the toxin so you could claim sabotage when it arrived at your company for processing.”

“Who the fuck would want to frame me for genocide?” Bertha roared, spilling the rest of her drink down her dress front. It soaked the fabric and trickled between her breasts. “One or two people would have been enough to cast suspicion on me, but a whole fucking planet?”

Keet hurried to Bertha’s walk-in closet and returned with a fresh garment. She handed it to her. “However, I’m sure records will prove the shipment of Fe-adrene was intercepted. There will be an investigation, so until someone comes calling, play everything carefully, legally, and with perfect records.”

“So how does a mineral converted into a strength drug for women get ingested by men and therefore effect the men with sexual insanity?”

“It appears that once a woman kisses another person or has intercourse with him or her, the drug added to the Fe-adrene had undergone enough of a chemical change that it then has the same effect on all males.”

For the first time real fear nipped at Bertha. “I’m fucking history!” she yelled. “Someone is out to put me away forever. Worse, I’ll surely be executed for this debacle!”

“I won’t let anyone hurt you or take you to prison,” Keet said forcefully. She knelt next to Bertha and stared directly into her eyes. “I’ll find a place to hide where no one will ever find you.”

Surprised by her number one’s conviction, Bertha returned her direct stare. Something in Keet’s gaze unnerved her.

“I assure you no harm will come to you, Madame.”

The assurance in Keet’s voice helped to assuage Bertha’s worries.

She stared at the zote carpet beneath her. “Were there any survivors?”

“Only a few children.”

“Children who are now orphans,” she said sadly. Stinging assailed the backs of her eyes. She blinked the sensation away, but when she spoke again, a tremor resided in her voice. “You better be fucking right that I won’t have to worry about charges, Keet. I’m not always the most honest businesswoman, but I have never been, nor will I ever be, a murderer.”

“I know.” Keet placed her hand on Bertha’s round knee, her palm extremely warm. “Let me help you, Madame. It will all work out, I promise.”

Bertha made eye contact with her again. Something was different about Keet, then suddenly she realized what was different. “What the hell happened to your tooth?”

Keet moved her hand to her mouth where she fingered the incisor and found its façade missing. She immediately replaced her finger with her tongue. “Fuck, I hadn’t thought to check it after I was hit by that stupid half-breed.”

Curious, Bertha quirked an eyebrow.

“On the way back, my ship stopped at an outpost to recharge, so I had a drink at the ship’s only bar and was unlucky enough to walk in just as a brawl started between two females fighting over a male. I got backhanded but hadn’t noticed the crystal had fallen out until now.” She fingered the incisor again. “It’ll take weeks to get another purple moon crystal.”

“Those things are rare on your Isokakian moon, so have the company cover it since it happened on the job, Keet. That way it won’t take as long to get clearance for the replacement crystal.”

Keet beamed at her. For some reason, the missing crystal urged a shiver down Bertha’s spine.

“Thank you, Madame. If you have no further instructions for me, I’m off to investigate the Fe-adrene matter further.”

Waving one hand, she dismissed Keet then slugged back what remained of her drink before hitting the sensor again and snarling, “Bring me the container of pellets and a dropper of water.”

Once the same servant had arrived and deposited the pellets on the table, Bertha shooed her away and dropped three pills into the glass. She squeezed out three drops of water from the syringe and sighed in relief as the liquefied booze filled the tumbler. Once she’d swallowed a healthy dose of it, the fire rushing through her bloodstream, she called her manicurist back then relaxed into her chair and reflected on Keet’s news.

Who, aside from Universal Alliances, wanted her locked away or dead? The tall and gorgeous Luna Moonstone entered her mind first. Could Lunatic truly want her put away that badly? She had always been at odds with Luna, but there always seemed to be an underlying mutual respect between them, regardless of what Bertha was being investigated or questioned about. Unless—she tapped her fingernails on the pearl tabletop—UA had put pressure on Luna to dig up something, anything, with which to nail Bertha. No, that theory was full of holes. In all Bertha’s dealings with UA she knew they were strictly legit. Part of what kept the peace among the planets, space stations, satellite ports, and neighboring worlds was the dedication to fairness and thorough investigation of any alleged criminal, incident, or crisis. Then again, UA had been getting a lot of flak for what was happening on Flameshot 7, so maybe the government wasn’t as reliable as she thought. Disturbing thoughts and doubts whirled in her head in a tornado of anxiety. It just wasn’t logical for UA to have Bertha set up, especially when there were much worse criminals out there in the universe than she.

So who could possibly be out to get her and why?

She glanced over at the mood wall, its colors still conveying contentment in the main office. Fuck, how she’d love to be calm and content, too. Her nerves were singing soprano, each one a siren of dire emergency. With her heart pounding faster than it should, Bertha swallowed the other half of her liquor. Even the booze did nothing to take the edge off her fear.

She needed a good hard fuck to mellow her. Someone to screw her until she was too exhausted to move. SS9 would serve its purpose, but she wanted someone who could surprise her instead of following commands.

“Madame,” a voice said through the com next to her. “Mr. Quasar Redgiant is here to see you. Should I send him in?”

Delighted to see him, she straightened and thrust her breasts out. A romp with her antiques dealer sounded perfect, if he was amenable.

“Let him in, but no escort is needed,” she replied. She shooed the manicurist, who had just finished doing Bertha’s last fingernail, from her boudoir.

When Quasar Redgiant entered her chambers, she stood and sashayed across the rugs, her dress swirling around her bare feet, and met him halfway.

“Madame Bendlight,” he greeted smoothly, his voice sending a thrill straight to her pussy. “I have another tea set that I purchased and, of course, I thought of you first.”

Something about Quasar always stirred her libido. Although she would screw anyone who appealed to her, Quasar had a quality she couldn’t label, something that ignited the need for sex in her the instant she set her gaze on him. He regarded her with a curious expression, his long salt-and-pepper hair pulled back in a glow band at the nape of his neck, his matching beard neatly trimmed in a design she thought might be ancient Celtic. His impeccably tailored steel-gray suit glimmered with mineral flecks and hugged his broad shoulders. Some might call him portly, but he didn’t have a belly. Quasar was burly, his body stout, and she loved the things he did to her with it.

She tugged on the adhesive strips of her gown. The garment slid off her body and landed around her feet. In only her epoxy-resin bra and thong, she regarded him with anticipation.

“Good afternoon, Quasar. How is my honey babe today?”

With a mischievous smile tweaking the corners of his mouth, he said, “I take it you have a different idea in mind for my visit?”

“Do you have plans for the rest of the day, Quasar?” She shrugged casually. “And for the night?”

He set the transport case down and activated its security mechanism. When the large portable crate glowed faintly white, he left it to approach Bertha with lust in his eyes. “For you, my bodacious beauty, I’ll cancel everything for the next week.”

Bertha couldn’t help herself. She giggled. Every time she was around Quasar her mood lightened. The sound of her laughter seemed to please him, and his smile broadened, reaching his eyes until their lovely aquamarine color deepened. The fact that he was pleased by her delighted Bertha, and she giggled even more, feeling silly and girlish all at once. An instant before Quasar actually reached her, he had the front of his trousers peeled apart and his eager cock free of his pants.

“You are a lovely, curvy goddess.”

“And you are a charmer,” she replied, meaning it.

He embraced her, crushing her breasts to his shirt front, her nipples rubbing tantalizingly against the smooth metallic fabric. His aroma of some sort of expensive cologne, subtle yet spicy, wafted over her. Squeezing her, he nearly forced the air from her lungs, but she relished the tight contact and focused on the sense of comfort she drew from him.

“You have the most beautiful breasts,” he said in awe. “Breasts that most men only dream of touching”—he bowed his head and nuzzled her cleavage with his nose—“licking”—he trailed his tongue up her deep cleft—“or fucking them pressed around his hard cock.”

His words inflamed her need, and a tiny moan escaped Bertha. He hadn’t even kissed her or fingered her, and already her cunt seeped with her juices. Her lust for him nearly rendered her incapable of speech.

“I’m not trying to charm you,” he said and moved her thong aside. “I speak the truth.”

She stared up at him as he bent his knees and slipped his hard cock between her thighs, thrusting unexpectedly and deeply into her core.

“Oh…” She shut her eyes and simply enjoyed the exquisite sensation of being impaled by him.

He thrust again, then again, the lust burning in her loins leaping ever higher with each pump of his hips. Meaningless sounds tumbled from her. About to jut her hips and drive him deeper into her core, she paused as he suddenly hefted her in his arms, forcing her to clamp her legs around his waist. He bore her backward until they crashed into the mood wall. The bright glow of intense pink swirled with gold lit the area around them, indicating their passionate state. Although she was a big girl, the fact that he’d carried her several feet across her boudoir and had planted and held her against the wall both shocked and delighted her. His maneuver was abrupt, unexpected, and oh so sexy. Bertha realized she wanted him more than she had anyone in a very long time.

He humped her again and again, driving his rod into her so forcefully that Bertha could only hold on with her legs about his waist, her arms slung around his neck, and let him pummel her cunt.

“Gonna fuck you hard, beautiful,” he said, grunting with each word. “Gonna make you come in three…more…strokes.”

The orgasm hit her with such intensity she couldn’t breathe. It rolled through her thighs, then up into her belly where it settled in her tits, forcing tingles through the fleshy orbs that stood her nipples on end. She tried to suck in air, but only a gurgle came out of her as the sensation forged its path through Bertha, rendering her helpless. Quasar kept pumping into her, pistoning his hips rapidly, her ass and boobs jiggling with each of his thrusts.

As she reached completion, Quasar continued hammering into her. She thought she was done, but the more he thrust into her, the more the coil deep within her tightened anew.

“Oh…oh my…”

“That’s it, beautiful,” he coaxed. “Explode for me again.”

“No, too soon…I can’t…”

“Yes, you can.”

He thrust into her—hard—then held her still, her passage filled fully with his cock. His rod pulsed inside her, aiding the building flutters of her inner walls.

“What are you…doing?” she gasped.

“Just part of my Reptillian DNA,” he panted in her ear. “Something that provides”—he growled low in his throat as he fought with himself not to come—“additional pleasure for my sexual partner.”

The pulsing of his dick grew more intense, massaging her channel, pushing her ever steadily to a second climax.

“It feels so incredibly nice, honey babe…” She gulped as the fluttering inside her grew more intense, whether from her or from him, she wasn’t sure. It quickened and became stronger. In response, she whimpered as though in pain, but it was actually pure pleasure. “Oh, so fucking awesome.”

Without withdrawing from her, he pushed into her harder, pressing his cock so firmly to the door of her womb she sucked in an excited breath. His rod pulsed furiously, grew impossibly harder, and wave after wave of pleasure rippled through Bertha.

“Now, my curvaceous lovely,” he rumbled into her ear, “come for me a second time. Come!”

As if he’d flipped a switch, she responded and came so hard she threw her head back, cracking it against the mood wall.

“Oh…my…god!”

She couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything except ride out the bone-numbing orgasm that rendered her immobile. Stars exploded behind her eyelids. Her pussy clenched rhythmically and tightly with each hard, fast ripple of her passage.

Panting, she wiggled on his dick still imbedded deeply within her. Every nerve ending inside her coursed with delightful sensation. Moans and cries burst from her, each one harsh, loud, but all pure delight. When she came down from her high, she sucked in lungful after lungful of air and realized he was just as hard inside her as when they’d begun.

“You didn’t come?” she asked, disappointed. She offered him a pouty lower lip, wondering if she should be hurt. “You didn’t enjoy it?”

“Oh, on the contrary, my beautiful goddess.” He licked up the side of her neck, creating a shiver that wriggled through her and clenched her hot, still-throbbing pussy. “I’m going to make you scream a few more times, then I’ll enjoy shooting my cum into you so fucking hard you’ll see stars.”

“I already did see stars.” She giggled, earning a chuckle from him.

He lowered her to the floor and set her on rubbery legs. After kissing her gently on her temple, he commanded, “Lead me to your bed, gorgeous.”

Still on legs of butter, she tugged him toward the curtains swaying in the back of her boudoir and leaned on him for support. She looked down at his proud cock jutting from his open pants front, its shiny, slightly purple head gleaming with her juices. Oh yeah. This was just want she needed to forget everything.

As he laid her on the soft zote throws and pillows, Universal Alliances, Lunatic, and the threat of incarceration, or worse, were buried safely in the back of her sex-hazed mind.

Chapter Eleven

Purple. The powdery, wine-colored crystals lay everywhere, on the toes of her boots, scattered across the ground in a fan pattern of violet sparkles. For an instant, a memory surfaced of a larger amethyst, but the instant the image appeared it shattered into a thousand pieces to join the other sparkles before she could focus on its source. Sensation stabbed her, and desire coursed through her veins to settle in her loins.

Luna looked down her body to find Crater Bob licking his way down her belly. Moisture seeped from her pussy, coating her inner thighs. She strained toward him, desperate to have him plunge his tongue deep into her cunt and lick and suck her to the pinnacle of pleasure. Instead, he laved his tongue back up her body and latched on to one of her nipples.

“Mmm…” She ran her hands over his shoulders.

She shoved her chest upward, wanting more of his hot, rough tongue on her tits. He complied and switched to her other boob, teasing the nipple into a painfully hard nub that shot sparks of electricity straight to her pussy where it pulsed up her vagina and into her core, creating a molten ball of dire need.

“Fuck me,” she whispered, desperate to have Bob inside her. “Fuck me now. I want you so much.”

Ignoring her request, Bob slid down her body again and parted her legs, his breath warming her folds.

“Oh, yes. That’s the spot.” She sighed in pleasure.

He nuzzled her pussy and flicked his tongue out to jab at her clit.

“Oh!” She couldn’t restrain herself from arching her hips. “Do that…” She gulped. “Do that again.”

He began a frenzied assault on her clit, using the tip of his tongue. His licking at her grew noisier, each jab, flick, and stroke of his torturous tongue shooting fiery lightning bolts straight to her core. She couldn’t keep still and thrust repeatedly against his face. Still flicking his tongue over her clit, he slid his palms beneath her ass, digging his fingers painfully into her buttocks, then he abruptly switched tactics and sucked her clit into his mouth, pulling hard over and over.

“Ungh!” she cried. “Mmph! Oh…oh...”

The ball of wonderful agony unraveled in her cunt and traveled up where it detonated in her core. She squealed and bowed off the bed, but Bob still drew on her clit, giving her no release from the bone-shattering feelings spiraling up her body as well as down her inner thighs. She pushed at his head to get him to stop, his hair silky between her fingers, but he kept sucking until a second, equally shattering orgasm blew through her so hot and fierce she went suddenly limp and screamed in ecstasy.

“Bob, oh my fucking god!”

She opened her eyes and stared up at a dim light casting a silvery-blue glow across the ceiling. Nighttime. She’d gone to sleep…in the habitat on Cerulean 2. What the hell…?

A body shifted between her legs, and one last pass of a rough tongue up her slit had her gasping in pleasure-pain. She met Crack’s bright yellow eyes in the gloom.

Cold reality slapped her—hard. Her memories slipped into place, everything starkly vivid in her mind. It wasn’t Bob with her, but Crack. She’d called him by the wrong name. Shame swept over her skin.

“Shit,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”

He rolled to one side of her and shifted up the bed so he lay even with her gaze, his unholy eyes boring into her. “It’s not the first time one of my lovers has called someone else’s name while in the throes.”

“We’re not lovers,” she said, heat settling in her cheeks.

“Are you sure about that?” His yellow gaze shimmered with flames of lust.

Thankful for the darkness to hide her face, she added, “We’re work partners with a license to have sex when we feel the need.” She pulled the thin zote sheet over herself. “I was dreaming.”

“I thought you were awake until you said Bob’s name. Who is this Bob?”

“No one important.” Luna flopped over, placing her back to him. “It was a stupid dream.”

He rose, dropping the sheet to the mattress, forcing a gust of cool air over Luna. She listened to him move about the room until it grew quiet. Peeking over her shoulder, she located him standing silhouetted at the big window looking out over a shallow valley. She’d offended him. She hadn’t meant to, because she had been dreaming, but nonetheless, she’d stung his pride.

Why the fuck had she been dreaming about Crater Bob? Even in her dreams Bob denied her his cock.

Rankled, she lay with her head on the pillow, willing sleep to come. Once again the images of purple sparkles danced in her mind’s eye. Frustrated with the memory-not-memory that kept popping into her head, she flopped onto her back to look up at the soft blue light that emanated from the corners of the ceiling. She remained there a long time, heard the sounds of Crack settling back in his bed in the adjacent room, and yet sleep still evaded her. When his breathing deepened and snores thundered from his quarters, Luna rose and slipped on the filmy mineral-flecked robe she’d tossed over a chair before retiring. She grew weary of the so-called violet gems that taunted her with something she couldn’t quite lay her finger on. Their meaning was important, but the harder she pondered the violet twinkles, the more the answer eluded her.

Quietly, she padded out of the room and through the habitat to the patio door where she exited then tiptoed over to a floating bench.

The sky, void of clouds, glittered with a googolplex of stars. On the eastern horizon, a light pulsed in a rhythmic pattern indicating the main satellite station orbiting Cerulea 2. Beyond it Cerlulea 2’s two small moons glowed softly, almost as if some great force had poked holes in the fabric of space to let light shine through. Few native inhabitants of the planet would ever look up at those moons again. Fewer still would know the unique blues of this world. The soft breeze wafting over the patio bore the intoxicating scent of an indigenous periwinkle blue flower, similar to Earth’s long-stemmed roses. She inhaled deeply as the crick-crick sound of an insect erupted in one of the cracks between the bricks.

She shut her eyes and once again saw bodies on top of bodies. Sadness washed over Luna. The infants who were left behind would have to be taught about their world by those who had only studied about Cerulea 2. Perhaps some of the Ceruleans working and living on other planets would make their home on Cerulea 2 once they learned what had happened, but it was a lot to ask of Ceruleans who had been born on other worlds never to have set foot on their planet of origin. They would be forced to learn as much as the children.

Murder, let alone genocide, wasn’t Bodacious Bertha’s style. Sure, the woman was shrewd, meticulous in her business dealings, whether legal or not, but wiping everyone off the face of a planet through a deadly substance laced with a common energy drug for females just didn’t make any sense.

Two tiny nighttime birds landed at the edge of the patio, the indigo bioluminescence of their beaks and feet casting light far enough that Luna could see the outline of the bricks. The feathery duo brought a picture to her mind, one of a mother and child. How many children would cry for their mothers tonight? She thought of her own mom and homesickness, something she hadn’t experienced for years, hit her so hard she inhaled sharply.

“Luna?”

She started and looked over her shoulder.

“What are you doing out here?” Pet asked.

The shape of Pet, darker than the night, walked toward her until the illumination from the birds revealed her. She sat on the other end of the bench.

“Are you troubled?” Pet questioned.

Luna sighed. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

“What has happened here is beyond grisly, but it was out of your control.”

“I realize that, but it still makes me ill. Millions of lives snuffed out—for what? Hundreds of orphaned children left behind. And no motive. Why would someone kill millions?”

“Maybe it was an accident,” Pet offered.

“Accident?”

“Perhaps the lethal substance that was in the Fe-adrene was bacterial, or maybe something accidentally went wrong with the application of the pill coating and it reacted badly with the Fe-adrene.”

Luna looked directly at Pet. Although she couldn’t see anything other than a vague form, the shine of her eyes was discernable. “Those are actually really good possibilities, but I don’t think the cause was something so simple.”

“Yeah.” A sigh followed Pet’s voice. “But it helps me cope with the horror of it.”

“Are we dealing with a mass serial killer?” She rubbed her palms over her face in frustration. “What possible reason could there be for someone to commit genocide?”

“This affects you deeply, Luna,” Pet said, “but I think it troubles you even more so because Senior Agent Morrin tried to pin the blame on you.”

She thought about that for a moment then nodded. “You may be right, Pet. You’re very astute. I must say I had my qualms about having you as my assistant, but you’ve turned out to be invaluable.” The sudden quiet on the patio drew Luna’s attention back her companion. “I’m sorry if I offended you.”

“You didn’t,” Pet returned so softly Luna had to strain to hear her. “You surprised me is all.”

Luna frowned. “Why?”

“Well, I’ve always admired you, Luna, always idolized you. You’re so beautiful, tall, your body is just…well…perfect. And you’re witty, intelligent, and such a strong person.”

“But?”

A soft snort of amusement wafted over to Luna.

“But you’re emotionally untouchable, so when you say something like you just did about me, it’s more than a mere compliment. At least to me it is.”

Luna mulled over her words. Pet was correct about one thing. Luna was emotionally untouchable.

“I’m a creature of carnal delights,” Luna told her. “Emotional attachments in a Lustonian—even a half Lustonian—spells disaster for not only me but those who may feel something for me. And in my line of work, I can’t afford to have emotional ties, nor the hot mess that comes with those who have feelings for me.”

They sat quietly for a minute or two. The little birds flew away, leaving them in utter darkness save for the twinkles above.

“I understand you better now,” Pet said. “Although you might want to do something about Crater Bob. He holds you in his heart. You know that, right?”

“Why would you think that?” Luna returned, puzzled. “Bob has never done or said anything to show he cares for me as more than a good friend or a good fuck. His jealousy is typical testosterone—no sharing of what he thinks is his.”

The rustle of clothes reached Luna. Vaguely she made out Pet’s form where she now stood a couple feet away.

“If you can’t see all the signs, Luna, then you’re blind. You took a chance with me, albeit grudgingly, and now you’ve found me to be invaluable, and we’re becoming more than just boss and assistant. We’re forming a friendship.” She walked away, her footsteps scuffling over the bricks. From the door, she added, “Maybe you should give Crater Bob a chance, too, and see what happens. I also reported to Stellarman about your sexual contract with Crack. So far you two seem to be playing by the rules, but sometimes Crack looks at you with more than just lust.”

“He does?” Luna snapped her attention over to Pet. “Have you told Stellarman that?”

“No.”

After Pet was gone, Luna sat for a long time staring up at the stars. Confusion, uncertainties, and heartache kept her company until the wee hours of dawn when she finally stumbled back to her room.

Even then, she dreamed of Crater Bob again.

She lay on the lounger where he’d fisted her a few days ago, her legs splayed, and watched him disrobe. She’d always loved his lean, broad-shouldered body. The scars that crawled along his skin gave him a rugged aspect, but he never believed her whenever she told him so. Still, she found him sexy, a mature man who was an enigma that befuddled her. She relished the way he held her, the sweet endearments he’d whisper into her ear as he thrust into her.

He said nothing this time, merely crawled up the chaise between her legs and sank his cock deep inside her. Luna arched, throwing her arms around his shoulders, delighting in the soft and hard patterns of his mottled skin beneath her hands. He immediately pumped into her, and she met him thrust for thrust, wanting him deeper, needing him to claim her and make her scream until her voice disappeared. He gazed into her eyes, his blue orbs conveying an emotion she couldn’t identify, one that awoke unease in her, but just as quickly as he saw into her soul, he tucked his face into the crook of her neck and humped her until her insides fluttered and the orgasm raked her passage to send aftershocks of pleasure throughout her limbs.

She jerked awake, her pussy still throbbing.

“Fuck,” she whispered.

Desire still trickled through her veins. She wanted sex—again. It seemed that since Bob had denied her what she wanted most, now sex was all she could think about. Well, she always thought about sex, but now it was even more intense. Reaching down, she touched her pussy lips and hissed as sensation shot through her folds. She was so wet, her inner thighs were even damp. Need pulsed in her loins and coiled low in her belly.

Faint tendrils of light seeped through the window. It was nearly daylight, and she still hadn’t slept. She had to do something to release this tension or she’d be up for hours more without even a nap.

Flinging back the covers, she sat up on the bed’s edge. Crack’s snoring still rattled the rooms. Well, she had a contract for sex with her DEA partner, so why not use it?

Chapter Twelve

Leaving her robe on the chair back, she padded naked into the next room where Crack lay flat on his back, one arm over his head on the pillow and the other flung out across the mattress. He heaved in big breaths then released them so it sounded like a transport ship taking off at each exhale.

Luna crossed the room, crawled up the bed, and drew back the thin zote sheet. She palmed his crotch, urging a moan from him, his flaccid cock quickly filling with blood to stand proud and eager. She rubbed her palm over it, inspiring it to harden further. Crack growled low in his throat. He blearily opened his unholy eyes, now a soft orange-red with sleepiness. He blinked up at her.

“Back for another round, bubbinyata?” he muttered.

“Please,” she said. “I can’t sleep.” Need throbbed in her pussy. She swung a leg over his hips and straddled him, looking down at his eerie eyes glowing in the gloom. “Fuck me?”

“Always.” He slid his callused palms up her bare thighs. “I can’t say no to you, Luna. You’re—”

She placed a finger against his lips. Maybe Pet was right about Crack. He couldn’t say anything sweet. No adoring words were allowed. They had a license to fuck and that was all.

“Shut up and fuck me,” she ordered.

“Do you want both cocks?” The sleepiness had left his voice, and desire now roughened it. “Or are you interested in a quick romp?”

“One cock,” she replied and positioned her pussy at the tip of his dick. “I just need to come so I can sleep.”

“As you wish.”

He gripped her upper thighs and guided her down on his cock. As always with Crack, she had to go slowly, his size manageable but barely. His girth stretched her, filled her to the stretching point. Hmm, maybe she should ask for anal as well. He always exhausted her, left her drained, but with him fully seated balls deep in her now, she didn’t want to move and risk losing the glorious sensation of her pussy filled with his rod.

“Ready?” he asked.

She nodded. He thrust upward, but with her sitting on his pelvis, he couldn’t thrust as deeply as she wanted. She ground against him, the tip of his cock raking her cervix. With her rocking back and forth, his hands squeezing her hips and giving her leverage to move harder, Luna began a sing-song noise that soon burst into cries of delight. The friction of his pelvic bone against her clit, and his cock rubbing the opening to her womb knifed her with pleasure. She arched her back and screamed out her ecstasy as she rode him crazily.

After she came down from her high, she was about to move and flop to the mattress, but he startled her by suddenly flipping her over on the bed on her back and penetrated her again.

“I haven’t come yet,” he growled down at her. “I’m going to fuck you into this mattress and then, and only then, will you sleep.”

“But I came—”

“Shut up, bubbinyata.”

With that, he thrust. She couldn’t help it. Her body had a mind of its own, and when it came to lust, it always betrayed her. Desire coiled in her core. It warmed her pussy, heated her inner thighs, ached in her lower belly, and spread tingles of need up into her breasts so her nipples hardened so painfully she grimaced.

He settled heavily between her thighs, his cock rooted as deeply as he could go. His rod, incredibly hard, throbbed madly inside her. For a moment she thought he was going to come. Instead, he pumped into her so forcefully he scooted her up the bed. She reached up, grasped the headboard so she wouldn’t bang her head against it, and held on for dear life.

Crack sat up in a kneeling position and pushed Luna’s knees up as far as they’d go. The change in his penetration angle had her crying out in delight. Since he was taller than her, his stance activated the nightlight on the ceiling, which spilled pale blue illumination down over his head and shoulders. He pushed deep inside her, held his cock there, then withdrew so slowly she wanted to scream in frustration. Again, he thrust hard and deep. In this position, her thighs flat to her ribs, knees at her shoulders, she couldn’t pump back, but having her in such a vulnerable and totally open manner inflamed her desire.

He pushed into her yet again and held his cock seated to the hilt. He looked down at her, his eyes flaring gold, the tiny flames around the irises flickering brighter. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from him. His huge, buff body was hers for the using. Muscles rippled along his arms, his chest. The shadows honed his abdominals even more. She moaned, wiggling her hips as best she could, wanting him to resume his beautiful torture on her.

He slipped his hands under her ass and drew her up farther so his thighs braced her hips and his cock pushed harder against her cervix.

“Oh…oh…” The new angle ratcheted her lust higher still. “Oh my…”

Pumping into her, Crack kept his hands on her ass, holding her in place. She lay with her lower legs sandwiched between his ribs and his biceps, sweat trickling out of his hair to drip on her boobs, and still he hammered into her. Luna moaned and just lay there letting him pummel her. It had been so long since she’d had a lover like this, one who demanded more than stamina. One who demanded that she gain all the pleasure she could from sex.

He kept pumping into her for a long time, the pat-pat-pat of their bodies meeting and their heavy breathing and moans the only sounds in the room. She held on to the headboard as he beat her pussy, each of his thrusts filling her to the hilt, drawing the coil inside her steadily tighter. He pumped into her, held himself there, then withdrew. The change in rhythm pushed her closer to completion, but it still refrained from giving in to her. He shoved into her again, his cock pressed tightly to her cervix, where he held it as it throbbed there. However, he didn’t come. He kept himself in check and rotated his hips to the left then to the right as though he was trying to literally screw his cock deeper into her.

“Oh fuck… Crack, that’s… Oh!”

He straightened so he rested on his knees and held her hips aloft, her shoulders bracing her against the bed. With his hands firmly planted on the fleshy part of her ass, he kept pumping into Luna.

“By the gods!” she shrieked.

Totally helpless, she knew he could snap her like a delicate string if he wanted. Before she could assimilate to the new situation, he lowered her and flipped her onto her hands and knees so effortlessly she sucked in a breath and cried out at the sudden abandonment of her pussy.

“Lean forward,” he ordered. “Face against the mattress so your ass is as high as it will go.”

She eagerly complied, pressing one side of her face to the mattress, her ass pointed to the ceiling.

“Fuck, what a gorgeous pussy you have,” he murmured. “And I’m going to fuck it until you beg me to stop.”

At his words, prickles of anticipation settled in her folds.

“Then stop talking about it and fuck me,” she said, her voice muffled by the sheet.

“I’m going to watch my cock slide into you,” he told her.

She moaned.

“And you’re going to be sore tomorrow, too.”

She moaned again and clenched the sheets so hard in her fingers her knuckles ached.

He pressed the tip of his rod to her pussy. She wanted him to penetrate her, but he rubbed his cock along her folds until her juices coated her so well she felt a slight trickle. Finally, he wedged his cockhead right at her opening and rubbed back and forth just enough that it proved both frustrating and amazing. Every time her pussy tried to clench and draw him inside, he’d move away leaving her folds thrumming with need.

He did this over and over until he suddenly shoved into her to his root and she screamed out in surprise and lust. He remained buried to the hilt for a long moment and rubbed his hands up and down her back, over her hips, pausing now and then to massage her hips. He thrust into her. She cried out in delight. He ran his hands over her body again, then pumped into her, setting up a different type of rhythm she’d never experienced with a lover before.

Finally, he gripped her by the waist, a hand on either side, and pummeled her ass. She couldn’t do anything, couldn’t move in any way to reciprocate. Subjected to enduring the sweet assault, she enjoyed every pump of his steel-hard dick as it abused her cervix and stretched her inner walls.

“I know”—he grunted—“you said only one cock, but…”

Something hard nudged her asshole. Lust flamed higher in her loins. He was going to fuck her up the ass, too. She was already pliant and more than ready for the second intrusion. Oh, this would be such sweet torture…

“Do it,” she gasped. “Now!”

The words had barely left her mouth when his second cock breached the ring of her anus muscles. She sucked in a breath at the sudden intrusion, the burn both painful and sweet. He wasn’t as gentle this time with her back hole, but since she was already primed it was endurable. In moments he had both cocks fully inside her. She breathed through the overwhelming fullness. His first cock lay seated hard against her cervix, his second cock up her ass as far as it could go. Burning filled her passages. Tingles traveled her nerve endings. She wanted to tell him to withdraw and yet wanted him to fuck her right through the wall.

“Oh fuck… I’m so full,” she said.

“Want me to—”

“No!”

“Then breathe through it so I can fuck you,” he ordered.

Whimpering, she relaxed further into the mattress, her shoulders loose, and pushed her ass up a tad farther.

“That’s it, my bubbinyata, that’s it,” he crooned.

“You’re so damn big. I feel like your entire body is inside mine and we’re struggling to see who gets the most room.”

“That is the idea. Pleasure at its highest.”

She drew in another breath, held it, then let it out in a rush. Once she did, he began thrusting. With both cocks working in and out of her, Luna could only lay there with her ass in the air and let him use her until there was nothing left. No more sexual craving. No more stress. No more anguish over the murders. No more anything except cock up her pussy and stuffed up her ass.

The coil deep inside her tightened to excruciating proportions.

“Oh…I don’t know if I can do this again…”

“I’m fully inside you.” Crack thrust once, twice, then paused. “And you have relaxed. Let me fuck you.”

“Mmph…”

He pumped into her. His cocks filled her. Then he withdrew, leaving her empty and unsatisfied, but just ask quickly, he filled her up again. She wanted him to withdraw and at the same time she wanted that incredible release of pure sensation where she could be one of the very stars above them.

He kept up the beautiful torment for a long time. Eventually, all Luna focused on was pleasure. The burning had faded. The stretching became intoxicating. And she wanted more.

“Oh fuck…” she breathed. “More, Crack, more.”

He picked up his pace. Luna cried out, delirious with pleasure. His hips slapped her ass over and over, his cocks stuffing her to the limit, and still he kept pummeling her.

“Mmph…mmph…” Each time she cried out, the coil inside her drew tighter until it was pleasure-pain, but still she didn’t come.

Finally, Crack thrust into her balls deep, holding both his cocks still.

“Crack, please!”

He pulled her harder to him.

“Oh!”

Then bucked against her so hard she slid forward with her head against the headboard. He thrashed her ass with his cocks, each assault so amazing that she exploded, her knees collapsing.

“Ungh!” she cried out over and over. Unable to raise her hips with him lying on and in her, she could only ride out her orgasm pinned to the mattress. She kept screaming into it until her voice grew hoarse and her insides twinged with pleasurable aftershocks.

Still, Crack wasn’t done with her. He withdrew, leaving her suddenly empty, rolled her onto her back, and penetrated both her holes again.

“Oh my god!” she cried.

Braced on his arms, he stared into her eyes as he thrust into her again and again. Need swirled into her loins anew. She wrapped her legs around his driving hips, sinking his cocks deeper into her and held on. He fucked her harder and harder and, just as another orgasm blew through her, he stiffened abruptly, his cocks swelling further, and exploded inside her, spilling his hot seed into both her passages. The warm sensation of his cum and throbbing cocks pushed her into yet another, albeit smaller, orgasm. She cried out and clung to him until he’d coaxed the last few drops of his essence into her.

Exhausted, he fell to one side and drew her against him, spooning her. Finally, her pussy and ass still stinging, Luna fell into a deep sleep without dreams.

Chapter Thirteen

The following morning, Luna boarded the UA transport ship. She moved slowly, her ass and crotch tender, but the memory of the early morning sex with Crack still warmed her. Sated for the time being, she looked forward to returning to Universal Alliances Headquarters with Crack and Pet. At least then there would be some sort of reason to her life. Being here on Cerulea 2 left her feeling unanchored, adrift in something she couldn’t identify, nor did she think she wanted to label it. All she knew was that the only time she felt like she had purpose was during sex with Crack.

They lifted off for their return trip to headquarters. In moments, the lovely blue planet grew smaller and smaller. A large forensic investigation ship still remained docked at the Cerulean outpost. Luna stared out at it, wondering if the one guilty of the genocide would ever be located. With all the solar systems, planets, and alternate dimensions that had been discovered the last few hundred years, there had to be a higher power out here to serve as guide and judge over all. She just hoped that whatever the power might be that it would make the murderer pay for slaughtering a planet of innocent people.

As though it came from thin air, a notification drew everyone’s attention, followed by an image of an Insectoid that glimmered at the end of the aisle. Luna could never determine what species an Insectoid was, nor whether it was male or female.

Its voice came through a translator, the sound robotic. “Please strap yourselves in. Warp nine to engage in thirty seconds.”

Quickly, Luna sat back and hit the sensor for the restraints. Across the narrow aisle from her, Crack and Pet did the same. The vessel shuddered. Beyond the window, the stars blurred then resumed their positions. Luna frowned. Again, the ship vibrated vigorously, and the stars attempted to haze then returned to the same bright pinpoints.

The synthesized voice filled the cabin again. “It looks like we won’t be arriving at headquarters on time. The warp drive isn’t working, so we’re going to limp to the next freighter until UA can send a replacement vessel. Apologies for the inconvenience Agents Moonstone and Crack.”

Luna released the restraints and leaned her head back. There was only one freighter that traveled this region which was large enough to accommodate passenger ships as it made its back-and-forth trips across this section of the Wavelength Galaxy.

“Shall we stay on board our transport when we arrive at the freighter or board it and have a few drinks at Crater Bob’s?” Pet asked.

“I want a drink,” Crack said. “And I want to see if that Grey is there so I can win my money back at Slicing Snocks. That big-eyed nishmikshit cheats.”

“Nishmik—what?” Pet asked.

“Son of a beach,” Crack offered.

“You mean bitch,” Luna corrected with her eyes closed. “It’s son of a bitch.”

Pet giggled again.

“I wouldn’t mind some buffalo wings either,” Crack continued, “but I do not understand why they are called buffalo wings when the beasts went extinct several hundred years ago.”

Peals of laughter burst from Pet. “They’re not really buffalo wings, Crack. They’re chicken wings.”

“What the fuck?” he said, his tone mystified. “If they’re chicken, why call them buffalo wings?”

“Don’t you get any pop culture on Flameshot 7?” Pet asked, puzzled. “Everyone knows buffalo wings are chicken wings…”

Luna tuned out her companions’ senseless chatter. The idea of seeing Crater Bob again knotted her insides.

Mineral mist hung low over the lounge and, as usual, nikto music pounded throughout the place. During the daytime, the lights were more subdued, but the banners and plaques announcing various brands of liquors and beers still glowed brightly in neon colors from their lofty spots throughout the joint. The crowd seemed to be mostly miners in for lunch and dinner from the neighboring asteroid that orbited a tiny uninhabited planet simply called Zot, where the vicious zote animals were raised and caught. The zote fibers and furs were used for textiles and blended with the leathery skin of fish that had been brought to a few planets for sport fishing, only to discover they were an invasive, destructive species. Most of the asteroid miners wore zote clothing, uniforms, gear, and tools provided to them by Zote Products, Inc. who liked to please the workers on an asteroid in such close proximity with Zot. In return, the miners protected the workers of Zot. The miners’ lives were rough, not only from the dangers of mining minerals, but also the animal rights activists who harassed the zote fur employees and staged attacks that almost always resulted in high death tolls when the released beasts turned on both protesters and miners.

As Luna strode past a table of miners playing Earth poker, one man glanced up at her with a smile of appreciation, his face stitched down one cheek from what looked like a rake of a big zote paw. The faint sheen of silver on his cheek told Luna nanobytes were busily restructuring his facial muscles. She smiled back and kept walking. Behind her, Crack let out a low growl.

Over her shoulder she said loudly, “We have a contract to fuck, not a relationship.”

He leaned by her shoulder so she could hear him over the music. “I know, bubbinyata, but I did not like the way he smiled at you.”

“Oh, really? Unlike the way you first approached me only a few days ago?”

“Point taken,” he grumbled.

Even with the booming music, Luna heard the faint whine of Pet’s neck wings as her assistant maneuvered around everyone to reach Luna’s side.

“This place is hopping tonight, isn’t it?” Pet shouted. “I sort of miss it here, but not enough to go back to waitressing. I always end up with bruises on my ass, and the guys are bad about tugging on my neck wings so they’re always sore the next morning.” She zipped in front of Luna to clear the way then raced back to her side. “Want a drink? I’ll buy. I’m betting you could use some Event Horizon. You find a place to sit, and I’ll get our drinks.”

Before Luna got a chance to say anything—if that were even possible when Pet got in one of her hyper moods—her companion had rushed off to the front bar to order their beverages.

She scanned the area for a vacant table, but there wasn’t an empty one to be had. Pausing, she looked behind them. Crack bumped into her nearly toppling her into a passing server with a tray full of bubbling green and red drinks. He grabbed her by the shoulder and righted her before she fell.

“Sorry,” he said. “It is overcrowded today. We may have to take our drinks to a booth, if there is one vacant, or have them delivered to the transport.”

She checked the back bar but didn’t see Crater Bob. He wasn’t tending bar at the front either. However, it wasn’t surprising since he typically worked the late afternoon or evening shifts. The thought of not getting to see him punched her in the gut harder than the thought of seeing him did. It didn’t make any sense. Why should she care whether or not she saw Bob? His last parting words that he wouldn’t make love to her again until she truly wanted him didn’t make any sense, and she didn’t have the time, nor the energy, to reason out the meaning.

She recalled the promise she’d made to him to have her pussy painted with a galaxy scene. She mentally shrugged it off. What did it matter now? Bob obviously wasn’t working, and she wasn’t about to go to his quarters here on the freighter to ask him for sex.

“Are you all right?” Crack asked.

She snapped her gaze up to meet his. “Yes, why?”

“You have this look on your face like you are about to cry.”

She quirked an eyebrow at him. “Me? No. I’m just upset over what happened on Cerulea 2 and irked that we can’t find a place to sit and relax for a while.”

He regarded her for several seconds, as though he was trying to make up his mind if he really believed her, then he blinked and nodded. “I know what you mean. I do not mind crowds, but this is crazy.”

“I got us a booth,” Pet said as she suddenly appeared in front of them. “We can use it until the lunch crowd thins. I always hated working the lunch shift when the miners flew over here from Zot.” She shrugged and fluttered her wings. “But we only dealt with them if the freighter was near Zot, like it is now. But wow, does the bar rake in big money whenever it’s near the planet. One time, I had a tray balanced on each hand and—”

“Pet!” Luna snapped.

“Oh, right. Sorry!” She motioned for them to follow her.

The booming nikto music faded, and miner funk blared from the sound system. Luna didn’t care much for the odd, rhythmic miner funk tunes, but it was better than the ear-busting nikto. Waving the mineral mist away from her face, she kept as close to Pet, whose tiny size allowed her to maneuver the tables and patrons with ease, as she could, but as was always the case, Luna drew unwanted attention. She saw the Rockman extend his leg but not fast enough to avoid tripping over it and sprawling face-first on the metal floor. Behind her, Crack uttered a pissed-off sound, then the Rockman was leaning over her and scooping her into his arms.

“Fuck, I am so sorry!” the Rockman’s gravelly voice filled her ear. “I didn’t mean to trip you.”

“Like hell you didn’t,” she snarled up at him. “You saw me coming.”

He grinned, his square, hard-lined teeth inches from her face, his breath laced with the harsh scent of mineral beer. “Now why would I want to trip a gorgeous creature like you? I wouldn’t want to hurt such a beauty. Come on now, gorgeous, let me check you for scrapes.”

The Rockman slid one of his pebbly hands around her waist, his palms rough on her skin, and settled it on the small of her back as he cupped the side of her breast with his other and heaved her up and onto his lap. The erection he set her against did nothing to ignite her usual desire. Instead, something broke in Luna. It released fury, fury that swelled through her chest and coursed down her limbs.

“Fuck off!” she snarled and pushed his hands away.

“Is that any way to be with me when I’ve helped you off the floor?” He pulled her back to him and humped her ass a couple of times, his erection now loosed from his pants and wedged between her thighs, firmly planted between her pussy lips without penetrating her. “You’re a fifty-fifty, so I know you can’t say no to sex. You owe me for saving you from bumps and bruises.” He tightened his grip, then he slid his arms around her, jerking her tight to his massive rock-hard chest.

Caught like a rodent in a constrictor’s embrace, Luna struggled to no avail as he squeezed the air out of her lungs. She looked up at Crack but didn’t find him where he’d been standing behind her. Instead, several of the Rockman’s companions had born him backwards to the floor and held him flat, unable to move. He kicked his big, booted feet only to have another Rockman sit on them, too. The roars of anger that came out of Crack silenced the crowd.

Her assailant stood, still clenching her to his torso, and headed through the crowd. She couldn’t even yell. If he squeezed her any harder, she’d black out. As it was, she could only hitch small breaths into her lungs. Tiny black specks bobbed around in her vision. As she struggled to breathe, other senses intensified—the sensation of his sand-papery, steel-like arms, his cock poking at her ass, the aroma of the beer he’d drunk, Crack’s bellows of fury—all of it coalesced into a sensory overload that mingled with her anger.

No one helped her. Who was crazy enough to go up against a Rockman, the strongest alien in the Wavelength Galaxy?

“I’ve had my lunch,” the Rockman whispered in her ear, “and now it’s time for dessert.”

“So rape is your dish of the day?” she wheezed.

“It’s not rape when it’s with a Lustonian,” he replied, chuckling.

“I’m half”—black dots intensified in her vision—“Lustonian. There’s…a…difference…”

He must have realized he was clutching her too tightly. He loosened his grip, then pushed through a booth door with her, tossed her down on the chaise end of the booth, and kicked the door shut behind them.

Finally able to drag in a few huge breaths, her vision coming back to her, Luna ripped open her jacket and unholstered her neuralstun. As the ringing in her ears stopped, she pointed the weapon at the Rockman. He grinned wider. She fired, but the energy beam only knocked him back one step.

Gravelly laughter rumbled out of him. He lunged at her the same instant she flicked her weapon up on another setting and fired again.

The beam hit him in the center of the chest, bearing him backward a couple more steps, but he laughed harder and came at her a second time.

Dimly, she was aware of the raucous voices and crashes outside the booth that melded with the miner funk still streaming through the bar. Crack must have gotten free somehow, and the bar was now in a brawl. She kept her attention on the Rockman, who kept coming at her. She fired a third time, pushing him back to no avail. Quickly, she slid her finger over the weapon’s level sensor and shot him once more. The beam shoved the Rockman back against the bar. He slid to the floor, and his eyes closed. He sat there, unmoving.

Scrambling to her feet, Luna holstered her gun as she made for the booth door. She’d barely placed her hand on it when a stony hand landed on her forearm and jerked her around to face the Rockman.

“Ha! Fooled you, you little tart!”

He bore her back onto the lounger and pinned her with is body, his cock eager where it wedged between her bare thighs.

“Get off me, fucker!” she snarled.

“You have to have sex with me,” he snapped back, his face twisting with anger. “You’re a Lustonian!”

“What part of half doesn’t sink into your brain?” She shoved at his shoulders. “I’m part human, too, which means I don’t have to be attracted to everyone!”

“You’re mine,” he insisted. “Don’t make me take you.”

“Then get the fuck off me, asshole!” She shoved again, but it was no use.

“I’m going to fuck you and you’ll like it!” he growled.

“If I want to fuck a rock, I’ll buy a granite dildo,” she shot back.

He headed butted her. Stars descended on her vision, and a mind-numbing sensation rocketed through her skull. A whimper fell from her lips, the pain so blinding she couldn’t do anything but pray it would stop. His beer breath floated over her face, and his stony body settled between her legs.

“Get off!” she said weakly. Her stomach lurched. “Off!”

“I’m going to enjoy my first fifty-fifty,” he murmured. “Gods, what a gorgeous body you have…”

He shifted again. She wanted to fight him, but the crushing discomfort in her head incapacitated her. A tiny part of her brain urged her to move, to fight, but the agony in her skull won.

“No!” she whispered fiercely.

“Shut up!” He braced one arm across her breasts, pushing the air from her lungs, and wedged his hips firmly between her thighs. “I’m going to fuck you, and you’re going to like it.”

The click, followed by the whine of a particle gun powering up penetrated Luna’s consciousness. The Rockman stiffened abruptly. Somehow, Luna blinked through the pain and looked up at Bob’s pissed-off expression as he held the weapon against the Rockman’s right ear.

“You have to shoot these guys in the eyes or the ears to kill them,” he said, gazing down her. “Otherwise weapon beams just bounce off or merely knock them about.” He flicked his attention to the Rockman then back to her. “But explosives work, too. These guys make great gravel for garden lanes.” He jabbed the particle gun harder into the Rockman’s ear. “Which reminds me, my mother has been nagging me to help her with her flower beds the next time I have some time off.”

“Bob…” she whispered. The relief that swept through her eased the pounding in her skull.

“Get off her—now.” He pushed the tip of the weapon into the Rockman’s ear even harder, forcing the alien to wince. “Slowly. Make any suspicious or sudden moves, and this thing is going to separate your head into lots of pebbly pieces.”

Gingerly, the Rockman scooted off of Luna and got this feet. She struggled into a sitting position but found herself flat on her back again as waves of nausea assailed her. She gulped and clenched her eyes tightly in hopes it would stop the room from spinning. The rhythmic miner funk was louder now with the door open. She wished someone would turn it off. Somehow it made the nausea worse.

“Authorities are waiting outside for you and your crew,” Bob said, voice icy. “Turn and walk slowly out into the bar while I keep this pinned to your ear.”

Their footsteps receded, but the music didn’t.

The whine of wings reached her. “Luna! Holy hell, are you okay? Fuck, you’re not okay. What did that brute do to you? Shit, you’re bleeding!” The lounger shifted under Pet’s slight weight as she crawled up next to Luna, who couldn’t manage to open her eyes. “Please be all right, Luna!”

“I’m trying to keep from passing out,” Luna whispered.

“Crack! Crack!”

“What the fuck, Pet?” Crack yelled from outside the booth. “What’s all the…?”

Luna couldn’t hold on any longer. Pet slipped her hand into Luna’s. Knowing her little companion was there and that she was well guarded by a Ripstinger, she let herself succumb to the encroaching oblivion.

Chapter Fourteen

At first she thought she was in total darkness, but the more her eyes adjusted, the more things she made out in the room—Bob’s room. He loved the soft, mushy zote blankets, the more expensive variety that most women with extra zips could afford. It was one of the quirky things about Crater Bob she liked so much. She snuggled deeper into the super soft, super fluffy sensation. She turned her head slightly, and pain zinged across the top of her skull, but once it faded, she found her face pressed to a cushiony zote pillowcase.

Throbbing intensified in her head. She groaned.

“Luna?”

“My head,” she said to Bob.

A soft light popped on in the far corner. She closed her eyes against it.

The bed dipped, and the light vanished. She blinked to find Bob blocking the glow orb’s illumination. He looked down at her, his salt-and-pepper hair stark neutrals in the low light. His vivid blue eyes, appearing navy in the shadows, regarded her soberly.

“UA has been notified of the incident in my bar,” he told her quietly. “They’re sending a medical transport for you. It should be here within the hour.”

“Thank you for coming to my rescue,” she said. “I feel stupid about it, though.”

“Why?” He frowned.

“I’m quite able to protect myself but failed miserably with that Rockman.” Ashamed, she tried to focus on something—anything—to avoid making eye contact.

“Hey.” He slipped his fingers under her chin and very gently turned her head so she’d look at him again. “No one can fight off a Rockman unless they’re able to use an explosive, shoot tiny targets like an eye, or be quick or stealthy enough to put the tip of a gun barrel in his ear.” He drew the backs of his fingers over her chin and up her cheek. “It’s like fighting a mountain of pure granite,” he added. “The mountain always wins.”

“It didn’t win this time,” she whispered, unable to break his gaze.

“I was lucky enough that he was distracted and I got to you in time.”

He offered her a lopsided smile that sent her heart into a juttering dance.

“My skull is killing me. That jackass head-butted me.”

“He split it open. I’m hoping you don’t have a concussion, but if you do, I’m sure the medics will insert some nanobytes into the cut to do repairs.” He sat quietly for a long moment and just stroked her cheek. “That Fire Heathen keeps asking to see you.”

The way he said the last part hinted at his irritation.

“He doesn’t mean anything to me,” she said and placed her hand over his where it cupped her cheek. “We have a license to screw, that’s it.”

“I think he thinks it’s more than that.”

“Don’t all males say that?”

The moment the words left her mouth she wished she could suck them back in again. Bob’s face hardened, his eyes turned stony, and he rose to his feet.

“I’ll tell them they can come in, but they’re not to upset you.”

With that, he turned and opened the door.

Crack and Pet had barely sat on either side of her bed when the UA medical unit arrived and whisked her out on a floating stretcher to the transport unit. Her companions followed in its wake.

Tears leaked from her eyes. She hadn’t even got to tell Bob goodbye.

One of the medtechs took her tears as an indication of pain and gave her a dose of medication that didn’t knock her out but it did scatter her thoughts to the four corners of the galaxy.

She lay in bed at United Alliance’s Hospital. Stellarman sat next to her, briefing her on the latest developments of the Cerulea 2 genocide and how the Femdrene had been tainted by a mist. Forensics had found the residue on everything wherever there were dead bodies. Crack and Pet stood listening at the foot of her bed.

“There are no other clues, none,” Stellarman was saying. “I just don’t understand it. The chemical mist had to come from somewhere, but there are no traces of it anywhere except the residue left behind and the traces of it in the bodies.”

“What if the unidentifiable substance traveled from body to body?” Crack asked.

Stellarman straightened. He turned his stoic face toward Crack. “Explain.”

“What if the substance traveled from person to person through the exchange of fluids?” He shrugged. “What made me think of it is the Fire Celebrations on Flameshot 7. The shaman ingests a plant root called okikikamok root—which is a hallucinogen similar to the peyote buttons the Earther kids still chew to this day. Since it intensifies in the shaman’s saliva, he must weaken its affect by kissing each woman in the clan to rid himself of the root’s hallucinogens or die. Once he’s kissed as many women, and sometimes men, as possible, he’s free to ride his vision high, and it is passed to others in the clan too, only it is not as strong because it has been dispersed between dozens of other people.”

“I think you’re on to something, Crack,” Pet stated.

“I do, too.” Stellarman rose and paced the room. “But we still have no clues to who committed this heinous act.” He paused next to Luna. “The only thing that has been found that is odd is some powdered moon crystal in the big mine chamber.”

Luna looked up at him abruptly. Moon crystal? The tiniest satellite orbiting the planet of Istoka was the only place moon crystal was found. The mineral was prized for cosmetic surgeries such as permanent belly rings, a body ornament she often wore herself, and nipple rings, nose piercings, and teeth grills or caps. It was as hard as diamonds, but rare.

“Luna?” Stellarman said. “What is it?”

“I…” She met his gaze. “I don’t know. It has something to do with the moon crystal, but it’s like a word dangling on the tip of your tongue, and no matter how hard you try to recall the word, it’s just out of your reach.”

“Rest.” The corners of his mouth tweaked slightly. “I’ll brief you all again tomorrow. Somehow we’ll catch this killer.”

He left her room.

Crack and Pet pulled chairs up to sit with her.

“Do you want anything, Luna?” Pet asked.

“How about you two stay for a while and watch some programs with me?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Crack said. “I’ll order some snacks and drinks for us.”

Once the robo-vender had left and Crack had purchased everything in it, they settled back to watch a movie. Pet activated the sensor on the corner of Luna’s bed, and the vine-like appendages erupted from it to quickly form a thin, glistening screen. Pet chose the movie they all agreed on and scooted onto the bed next to Luna, her little wings flat behind her head.

Luna munched on some mineral puffs dusted in a sweet olive oil coating, her mind swirling with question marks that all pointed to the moon crystal. She’d seen the mashed crystal when she’d helped the miner up…

Her eyes flew wide. The handful of puffs she’s tossed in her mouth fell to her gown front as her mouth gaped open.

Pet glanced at her and did a double take. “Luna? What’s wrong?”

“We…” The dusting from the puffs caught in her throat, and she started coughing. Pet passed her a juice pellet and, still hacking, Luna managed to put it in her mouth and swallow the burst of liquid. “Th-thank you.”

“What were you going to say?” Crack asked.

“We had the killer with us and didn’t even know it!”

Pet and Crack gaped at her so strangely that Luna almost burst out laughing. “I’m serious, the person whom we—”

“The one with the mashed respirator mask!” Pet squealed and sat up straight, neck wings aflutter. “The lone survivor we got on the lift to safety!”

Luna nodded. “Exactly.”

“Holy fuck!” Crack leaned forward on his chair.

“But who could it be?” Pet asked.

“That’s the big ten million zips question, isn’t it?” Luna replied.

Heart racing, she sat back again but couldn’t concentrate on the movie. The puffs were tasteless as she ate mechanically, her brain spinning with possibilities. Still, the answer dangled in her mind as though it was on the proverbial tip of her tongue. It would come to her.

It had to.

Later, the movie over and crumbs all over Luna’s bed, she shooed Pet and Crack out of her room for the night.

“We’ll be right across the hall,” Crack told her. “Stellarman got us a room there since we’re technically still working on the case.”

“Good. I’m glad you’re both nearby,” she said.

Pet beamed happily at her and vibrated in place. “Goodnight.” She vanished across the hall. Then from the other room, she called mischievously, “I’ll let you two have a few minutes to yourselves.”

Crack leaned over the bed and kissed Luna soundly on the mouth. Desire whispered through her, but she ignored it. The fact that he’d displayed affection unnerved her, rattling her down to her bones.

“Are you sure you feel all right?” he asked.

She stared into his eyes, which were an odd gold color she hadn’t seen before. “Yes, why do you ask?”

“When I saw all the blood gushing down the side of your face where that Rockman had hit you, I thought you were dead.”

“Well, I’m not.”

He smirked. “Obviously, but you have to admit he shook your brain up, bubbinyata. The nanos are still working on that cut and the bruising.”

He trailed his big hand down the side of her face to her breasts, loose beneath her gown, then beneath the cover and under the garment and back up her thighs to her pussy. He palmed her, and she couldn’t help grinding into his hand.

“Even when you are not well, you respond to me,” he murmured.

She looked into his eyes, which had shifted from gold to yellow, the flames of lust flickering around the pupils. She couldn’t help herself. It was her nature to want sex, and if she found the partner attractive, she had to act on the desire or go crazy from the need that would saturate her veins until she could find a way to orgasm.

Crack slid his fingers through her folds. She raised her hips, giving him better access.

“I would fuck you right here but I do not want to explain myself to a nurse,” he said, chuckling.

“This is nice, too,” she panted.

He slipped one finger into her channel. She groaned and closed her eyes, relishing the sensation of his big digit in her. He pumped it in and out of her a few times then added his middle finger to the motion.

“Mmm…”

“I smell your aroma, bubbinyata, and you’re so wet. It seems a busted head does not affect your sex drive.”

“Stop talking,” she snapped.

He chuckled again and added a third finger.

“Oh…yes…”

His fingers stretched her, their roughness enough to excite her without irritating the delicate skin there. She strained against his hand, needing to reach completion, needing to shed the stress that had riddled her since the last time they’d fucked.

He pumped his fingers again then again. Suddenly the coil inside her broke, and she bucked as the orgasm rocketed through her so intensely she found herself bowing off the bed. He kept thrusting his fingers in and out until she fell exhausted on the mattress. He withdrew his hand and pulled the overs over her. Before she could protest, he leaned over and sucked one of her nipples into his mouth through the fabric of her gown. She mewled in protest but loved it all the same. He then moved up to her face and claimed her lips in a kiss that left her breathless and stunned.

He released her and said, “Sleep well, bubbinyata.”

The covers were vibrating, then Luna realized she was the actual source of it. She didn’t feel anything for Crack. Did she? She tried to analyze the sensation that was rushing through her and filling her mind with denial. She liked the way he made love. Oh, who was she kidding? She soaked up every little thing he did to her physically. She responded to him so easily, just as she had now when he’d finger-fucked her, and even after she shattered in his arms, he’d start over and she’d orgasm again and again.

But Crater Bob had that same ability.

Fuck.

Why did he always pop into her thoughts when she least expected it, especially when she didn’t want to think about him? More tremors ravaged her body.

Crater Bob, also known by his real name of Robert Covy. One hundred percent human, an Earther who had migrated to space to make a living. Her Bob with silver and black hair, brilliant blue eyes, eyes like the aquamarine waters that surrounded her mother’s home on Earth. His lean body filled Luna’s mind, his scars adding character and depth to his looks as well as his personality. Bob had quiet ways that always perplexed or frustrated her but was Bob all the same. The gentle yet firm manner that he would touch her, stroke her, and then he could turn just as dirty as any other man such as when he’d fisted her then refused to fuck her with is cock afterward.

Flummoxed, she wiggled down in the bed and brushed Pet’s snack crumbs from her covers. Could Pet be right about Bob? Was he truly in love with her?

Now Crack was showing signs of affection for her. Was he falling in love with her, too? Was it in a Fourpeck Fire Heathen’s nature to fall in love? She knew so little about the race. Hell, he could be planning to sacrifice her to a black hole to appease one of the Flameshot 7 gods for all she knew. And as for Crater Bob, she couldn’t love him. It wasn’t in her nature. She was half Lustonian.

But she was also half human.

Suddenly tired, she snuggled into the pillow. Her eyelids drooped. Who might love her wasn’t important. She had to figure out who the killer was on Cerulea 2, the person whom they’d saved from the mine cavern. What did she know about this individual?

She thought back. She had no idea if the killer was male or female due to the uniform they had worn as well as the head and face gear. The shape of the person’s body didn’t give any clues either. Unless one had actual human genes in them, the shape could be anything from straight up and down, to many appendages, to even round and gooey. Neither had the voice indicated the sex of the killer as it had come through the breathing apparatus. The killer had been small and slender, which meant nothing. No hair could be seen either, nor had Luna glimpsed the perpetrator’s eyes.

She had no clues except the crushed moon crystal.

Moon crystal…

She dozed off, her body still thrumming slightly from her orgasm. Vaguely, she heard another program playing at the foot of her bed. It sounded like an action flick with the explosions and gunshots of an old Earther film.

Growing sleepy, she sifted through the mounding details of the case. Bodacious Bertha at her pearl-topped table gesturing as she spoke, her gemstone-tipped fingernails sparkling in the light. Pet waiting out in the reception area, then Keet calling Luna in to see Bertha.

Purple eyes…who had purple eyes? Oh yes, Bertha’s right-hand woman, Keet, the Istokakian with her dark-gray skull ridge and violently purple eyes. She sighed and let sleep claim her a little more. Purple eyes again…why did she feel there was a third purple eye involved in the image? In her developing dream, Keet smiled her creepy I’ll-pounce-any-second smile, revealing an incisor longer than the other and inset with a bright purple moon crystal.

Luna gasped and sat up, heart thrashing.

It couldn’t be her…could it? Keet the killer? Keet was small, slender. The person they’d saved in the mine had kept his or her hands over the mouthpiece, but what if had been Keet and she’d had done it to hide her teeth because Luna might recognize her?

Why would Keet murder a planet full of innocent Ceruleans? For what purpose? Orders from Bodacious Bertha? No, it just wasn’t Bertha’s style to murder. She wasn’t the type to resort to such a measure to get what she wanted. Bertha was a charmer, a manipulator, and even a liar and a smuggler, but not a murderer. So had Keet set her boss up?

Luna threw the overs back and scooted to the edge of the bed. Head spinning, she staggered over to the clothes zip-up and removed her things. Unable to stand without swaying, she sat on a stool and put on her bra then her crotchless shorts.

“What the hell, Luna?” Pet said from the doorway. “I peek in to check on you and you’re leaving? You can’t leave! You haven’t been discharged.” She turned and called over her shoulder. “Crack, get over here.”

“I think I know who the murderer is, Pet,” Luna said excitedly. A wave of dizziness washed over her, and she paused in reaching for one of her thigh-high boots. “It’s Keet.”

“Keet?” Pet echoed. “I don’t know who this… Wait. Are you talking about Bodacious Bertha’s second-in-command?”

“Yes!”

“What are you doing?” Crack asked and rushed to Luna’s side. “Get back in bed.”

“She thinks the killer is Keet,” Pet told him.

He looked at Luna. “Who the fuck is Keet?”

“I’ll explain as we transport to Bendlight Enterprises,” she said, wishing the two Cracks she now saw would return to being just one. At that, she giggled.

“I think she’s delirious,” Pet commented worriedly.

“Back to bed with you.” Bending, Crack started to sweep her into his arms to carry her to bed.

“No! Don’t! I know I’m not at one hundred percent but I’m not imagining things!”

He paused and glanced at Pet. “What do you think?”

“I’ve never known Luna to be wrong about people.”

He nodded. “All right. Notify Stellarman and tell him to have a fast private transport ready for us.” He helped Luna don her other boot and raised her to her feet. When she swayed, he clasped her to his side and said, “You’re really not up to this, Luna.”

She did feel like shit. Maybe the longer she was up moving around the better she’d feel.

Maybe.

She gulped and said, “If Stellarman sends someone else to confront Keet, Bertha isn’t going to let them in, and things could go seriously wrong. Bertha may not like me, but in some weird sort of way she does trust me.”

“All right.” He nodded to Pet. “Tell Stellarman we’ll be at the docking station in fifteen.”

Luna leaned on him as they walked past the nurse’s station. One nurse saw them and leaped to her feet to protest, but a look from Crack instantly silenced her.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, bubbinyata,” he said.

“Keet is the killer,” she replied. “I feel it in my bones.”

Chapter Fifteen

The late hour was Bertha’s favorite time of the day. She could put work behind her until morning, relax, eat her violet and Istokakian butternut bonbons that Keet always provided for her enjoyment, and sip on some top-shelf liquor or have a pot of lavender tea in one of her favorite tea sets. This evening Quasar had surprised her with a homemade brew his brother had sent him from Earth. Her lover stood at the bar in her private chambers pouring the pink liquid into two tall wine glasses.

“What did you bring for me, honey babe?” Bertha asked.

“Champagne,” he answered.

“But I’ve had champagne before.”

“This champagne is made with rose petals and cherries,” he said. “My brother’s best friend makes it. The novelty flavor has taken off on Earth. It looks like he has started a lucrative business.”

He walked over to her to where she sat on the edge of the bed and passed her one of the flutes. The instant she raised the bubbly to her nose, a shimmering image of roses and cherries in red and pink appeared over the rim of the flute. She eyed the slender glass with hundreds of bubbles clinging to its insides.

“Do you know why there are so many bubbles in champagne?” Quasar asked.

She shook her head as she kept studying the deep pink liquid.

“Dust from the air or a drying cloth, and even the imperfections in the glass draw them. They cling to such places until they’re dislodged.” He sipped from his glass and made an appreciative sound. “Try it.”

Bertha raised the flute to her nose, dispersing the faint image, and inhaled. The typical wine smell greeted her nostrils along with the aroma of something distinctly floral, followed by a waft of ripe cherries. She sipped then held the champagne in her mouth a moment, the bubbles tingling on her tongue. She swallowed.

“Mmm. Excellent!”

“Supposedly an Earther monk, Dom Perignon from the 1600s, invented champagne, but my research about champagne has revealed there are many other ownership claims to the origin of the drink. Regardless of who truly made the first champagne, the flavor and bubbles were such a success it still persists today and has reached beyond my home planet.”

“You seem to know a lot about this drink,” she said.

“I’m an antiques dealer, my curvy goddess. It’s part of my profession to know the history that accompanies the items I buy, sell, and trade.” He shrugged then set his glass on the bedside table. “But in this case, my brother was merely passing along the information he was given when he bought the champagne.” He drew the backsides of his fingers over her cheek. “Always remember that knowledge is power.”

She finished her drink and set her glass next to his. The moment she did, he shoved her back on the bed. She gasped then laughed.

“You’re my addiction,” he whispered.

With ease, he peeled the adhesives apart on her dressing gown and flung each panel to the sides of her body revealing her loose, ample breasts.

“Ah, good. No panties either,” he mused.

“I had a hunch you’d be here tonight,” she admitted.

Chuckling, he spread her thighs. “What do we have here? You’ve replaced the pretty blues of the galaxy painted on your pussy with a painting of gemstones?”

“I hope you’re not displeased,” she replied, worried. “You fucked me so long and hard the other day you rubbed half the paint off my pussy.”

Laughter rolled out of him. “It was worth it.”

He straightened and disrobed. Bertha loved Quasar’s body. Although he was an older gentleman, he kept his burly form toned. His barrel-chested strength never failed to startle her when he’d manhandle her during sex. She loved it when he let his long silver-and-black hair hang free, too. It ran silkily through her fingers whenever she gripped the back of his head during one of the supernova orgasms he always gave her. She found his salt-and-pepper beard, cut into a neat Celtic pattern, sexy has hell, especially when he looked down his patrician nose at her, his aquamarine eyes so clear she fancied she could see sand and seashells in their depths.

“What is it, my lovely?” he asked.

“I…”

How did she tell Quasar she cared for him without scaring him away? She was a big woman, and most men were frightened by her, which was why she usually relied on toys and SSes. It wasn’t often she had a sexual partner who found her curves irresistible. She kept staring up into his baby blues. The grip on her heart that she hadn’t been able to identify suddenly tightened further.

“Oh, nothing,” she finally said.

He cupped her face, leaned over, then brushed his lips across hers, his mustache tickling her nose. “I think a lot of you, too, beautiful. You’re one in a million.”

Stunned, she could only gape at him.

With a smile, he tugged her to the edge of the mattress. “Just so you know, I plan to rub the paint off your pussy again.”

She giggled. Tingling had already begun in her core and swept downwards into her folds. She couldn’t get enough of Quasar. It seemed her thoughts were always dwelling on him. At times, when she and Keet were going over records while trying to figure out what had gone wrong with the Femdrene mine on Cerulea 2, she’d find herself daydreaming about Quasar. It was a habit that seemed to really piss Keet off of late. She couldn’t blame her second-in-command. It was foolhardy to allow a man to interfere with the management of a multi-million-dollar enterprise, but Bertha just couldn’t shake him from her brain.

“Your mind is wandering again,” Quasar stated.

“I’m sorry, honey babe. I really want you—I always want you—but I have so much on my mind.”

“Oh? Such as?”

He slid his hand along her bare crotch and tapped her cunt with his fingertips. She inhaled sharply and grinned up at him.

“We can discuss it after,” she said.

“After what?” He quirked an eyebrow and suppressed a grin.

“After you fuck me silly.”

“Excellent idea.”

She glanced down her body where he stood between her knees. His cock, ramrod stiff and glistening with pre-cum, stood eagerly awaiting its place inside her.

“Mmm,” she cooed. “I want that.”

“How do you want it?” he asked, taking a step closer to her pussy.

Quickly, she raised her bare feet and captured his cock between them so that it rested perfectly within her arches.

He gasped at the sudden contact. “What are you doing?” He dropped his gaze to her pussy. “Oh my. This position opens you to me, yet I can’t touch you with my cock or my mouth.”

“Let’s play a bit before we get really serious,” she suggested coyly.

She rubbed her soles back and forth over his cock. The tiny hole created by the arches of her feet provided a tight fuck spot and forced a low growl out of her lover.

“I must touch you,” he said, groaning.

“Lean this way,” she instructed, “and grab my boobs.”

As he did so, she kept his dick firmly between the soles of her feet, but his leaning over Bertha forced her thighs wider, almost painfully, and fully exposed her pussy.

“Fuck, woman! The things you do to me!”

He placed his hands, palms down, over her breasts and squeezed at the same time he thrust between her feet. She pressed her feet tighter together. He thrust again. The culmination of the nerve endings in her soles and the silkiness of his hard cock proved a million times more erotic than she’d thought it would.

“Oh, baby,” he groaned, “this feels fucking amazing.”

Quasar squeezed her breasts over and over, his palms tantalizing her erect nipples. She wanted more contact but also wanted to keep Quasar at bay to tease him into a sexual frenzy. With each pump between her feet, he pressed her thighs down, prompting pain, but it was a brief discomfort relieved by his withdrawal before he pushed his cock through her feet again. He kneaded her boobs then rubbed them in circles, sweeping his palms around their outsides then cupping them from the bottoms and gripping them hard.

“Yes, yes…” she breathed.

Tingling in her loins flamed across her skin and upward through her lower abdomen. She wiggled, desiring to have him shove his cock into her, but she had to keep him from coming, create in him a need to fuck her over and over throughout the night. But it was oh so tempting to let him have her right then and there. Still, she refrained, willed herself to be strong and not give in to her baser instincts. In the end, it would be so worth it.

He picked up the speed of his movements, the sensation of his hard cock stroking through her arches, the steeliness of it beneath its thin, silky skin—she almost released him so he could penetrate her. No, she had to torture him with pleasure a little longer, make him want her so badly he begged to fuck her.

“Babe,” he gasped, “I want to come inside you.”

“No, not yet.” She pushed her feet together a tad harder and was rewarded by his sharp intake of breath. “Tonight you have to work your way to the prize.”

“Woman, you’re beautiful torture!”

“Come on my belly,” she urged. “Then we’ll rest and start over.” She gasped and shut her eyes as he thrust then held himself still, his groin firmly against the sides of her feet. She glanced down and admired the shiny, reddening head of his cock poking out from the hole created by her feet. He stayed that way a little longer this time, the tendons at the apex of her thighs protesting.

“What am I”—he gulped as he withdrew and poised his dick at the hole her feet created—“going to do with you?”

“Fuck me until the paint is rubbed from my pussy again,” she quipped.

Chuckles rolled out of him. “Whatever my curvy goddess wishes.”

He thrust so hard and fast he nearly pushed through her clenched feet to meet with her cunt, but Bertha concentrated, keeping her position, enjoying the hardness of his cock moving back and forth across the most sensitive area of her soles. He shoved forward, the pain in her hips flaring briefly, then he withdrew, easing her discomfort. At the same time he maintained a rhythmic squeezing of her tits, sometimes forcefully. The next day she’d certainly have fingerprint bruises, bruises she would wear proudly, a testament to her night of incredible sex with her favorite lover to date.

“I want you,” he growled.

“Aw, honey babe,” she cooed to him, “come for me.”

He groaned.

“That’s it, baby,” she said. “Come for me. Squirt all over my belly. You know you want to. You can’t possibly hold it back any longer.”

“Mmph, mmph, mmph…”

He grew louder and louder with each thrust, and still Bertha kept him clenched between her feet and reveled in each painful bend of her hips and squeeze on her boobs.

The door opening drew her attention. She looked under one of Quasar’s arms and spotted Keet watching from the doorway.

“Really, Madame.” Keet’s tone reeked with disgust. “Again?”

“Not now, Keet,” Bertha snapped angrily.

“I must report on the latest information regarding the Femdrene incident.”

“Oh!” Quasar yelled. “That’s it! Fuck, yeah!” He stiffened then let out a loud groan that had Keet rolling her eyes behind him.

Gooey warmth splattered across Bertha’s belly, some of it landing between her breasts.

Thrilled she’d made him come so easily in this manner, she kept urging him. “That’s it, baby. Keep going. Give it all to me. Give it to me now.”

Groaning and growling, Quasar kept screwing her feet as he coaxed the last few drops of himself to land on her abdomen.

“Mmm, that was hot,” he said. “Solar hot!”

Bertha let go with her feet and let him help her to sit up on the edge of the bed. Now in a normal position, in the rush of blood and the zing of nerve endings in her hips proved more intense than the super-wide spreading of them had been. She tried to keep the grimace off her face as she grasped the sheet and wiped cum off her belly and boobs.

Turning, Quasar started slightly upon noticing Keet. “Fuck, you need to wear a bell around your neck!” He jerked his pants on and glared at Keet. “How rude.”

“You are old-fashioned if displays of sex and nudity bother you,” Keet said in a slightly snide tone.

“Keet,” Bertha said with irritation, “I am not working now, nor am I working tomorrow. Whatever it is you have to say or report can wait until the first of the week.”

“I’ve come to tell you that Luna Moonstone and her big brute of a partner are docking their ship as we speak.”

“Tell her to come back in two days,” Bertha replied. “I am not dealing with any of Lunatic’s fucking shit right now. I need time to relax.” She tiptoed her fingers up the fly of Quasar’s pants. “And I’ll be indisposed until the workweek begins anew.” She flicked a glance over at her second-in-command. “Make sure they are sent away.”

“With pleasure, Madame.” Keet eyed Quasar with disdain, then spun on her heel and excited the bedchamber.

Crack eased the transport into the docking station, activated the magnetic grips to engage with the dock he’d been assigned, then nodded in satisfaction as the slight jerk of the ship indicated their stable connection an instant before the engaged confirmation light flared green.

“I’m sure Bodacious Bertha has already been notified that we’re here,” Luna mused. “I hope this doesn’t turn ugly.”

“You don’t mean a physical altercation, do you?” Pet asked from the seat behind her.

“It’s not Bertha I’m worried about. It’s Keet. If I’m right about her, there’s no telling what she may do to protect herself.”

“There are three of us, and backup will arrive soon,” Crack stated.

“I know,” Luna said, “but I’ve got a weird feeling about this. Keet’s guilty of genocide, so she’ll do whatever it takes to keep herself from going to prison—or worse.”

“We don’t know for sure she’s the murderer,” Crack said. He slid a big finger pad over a sensor, and the seat harness released. Standing with his head and shoulders stooped so he wouldn’t hit the cockpit ceiling, he added, “Innocent until proven guilty, remember?”

Luna stared up at him then disengaged her harness, too. “The proof of her guilt is in her big mouth.”

He stroked a lock of hair from her eyes. “You need some stress relief. How are you feeling?”

“My head still hurts, but I’m okay,” she replied.

Pet also hit the release sensor for her safety harness then hopped to her feet, neck wings a blur with her ill-concealed excitement. “I can’t wait to kick some Istokakian ass! I didn’t like Keet the first time I saw her. She has this look about her that the instant you turn your back she’s going to pounce on you.” She started her rapid bouncing motion, her entire form practically vibrating in place. “I didn’t trust her then. It’ll be good to have her out of society. Those poor Ceruleans! How could anyone even contemplate—?”

“Pet!” Crack almost thundered.

Luna cringed, his voice too big and loud for the tiny confines of the transport.

Pet halted, her eyes going wide as she stared up at him. Hiding her smirk, it wasn’t lost on Luna how Crack appeared as a giant next to an ant, just like the ones she used to watch cross the corner of her mother’s patio on Earth.

“How about you go on inside the check-in office and finish logging in our transport?” Crack urged. “We must wait on backup anyway, so give me and Luna a few minutes, all right?”

Somewhat petulant, Pet nodded. She turned, flapped her neck wings a couple of times as if to rid them of kinks or wrinkles, then hit the sensor to release the exit.

Once she had gone, Luna said, “I think you offended her.”

“I did not mean to, but there are times she is overwhelming.” He shifted his attention from the ship’s exit, now closing, and focused on Luna. The tiny yellow flames in his irises flared to life. “You are sure your head is well?”

She kept herself from smiling. The vibes rolling off Crack told her all she need to know.

“Yes,” she answered. “I’m much better since leaving the hospital. I think just being there aggravated my headache.”

“That is good news,” he said, “because I now have a headache.” He took her slim hand into his massive one and placed it on his crotch where a hard and very large bulge had formed. “I think I need something for my pain.”

She couldn’t suppress her grin any longer. “Seriously? When UA is within minutes of docking here?”

He shrugged, a grin tweaking the corners of his mouth, the suppressed smile filling his eyes with mischief. “Why not? We will be quick, and I will give you only one cock this time.”

“Since when?” she countered, laughing. “We’re never quick about sex.”

“This time we must be.” He took her other hand into his free one and drew her close to him. “Besides, I have found that if I do not touch you often that I have withdrawals.”

“Oh?” She stared up into his eyes. Even the brightness of the lust flames flickering in his irises created need in her core. “You keep saying such things, but ours is a legal contract, remember? We’re licensed to fuck. No emotional strings attached.”

“So you keep saying.” Crack spun her around so abruptly she cried out an instant before he bent her over one of the passenger seats. He hit one of the sensors over the co-pilot seat, shutting off the cockpit viewers. “No sense in giving someone at UA a free peep show, especially one that features your delectable ass.”

“You know I always wear crotchless shorts,” she pointed out.

“I must be able to admire your gorgeous backside,” he said, chuckling. “It might aid us in fucking faster.” He slid his hands around to her pelvis and released the adhesive strips to quickly draw her shorts down her hips. The garment fell around her ankles just as he let out an appreciative whistle. “My cock is so hard it feels like it might snap in two.”

His words served to inflame her already building desire. Crack was right. As a creature of sexual pleasure, she did need stress relief, and Crack certainly had big, hard cocks enough to do that for her.

Bob’s face flashed through her mind’s eye, but she dashed the image away and pushed her ass closer to Crack.

“Oh, bubbinyata…”

He lined the head of his cock up with her opening. At the hot touch of it against her pussy lips, Luna whimpered and leaned farther over the seat so her ass was totally open to him.

“I cannot wait—”

“Just fuck me!”

He pressed into her, stretching her passage. She inhaled sharply, trying to relax. He pushed into her again—harder this time—then finished entering her by shoving all the way inside, filling her so abruptly she yelled out.

“Breathe through it, bubbinyata,” he coached.

“Feels painful and amazing all at the same time,” she said between pants. The way his cockhead lay wedged so tightly against the opening to her womb made her crazy with lust. She was so full of dick! “Fuck me, baby. Please!”

Chapter Sixteen

“What’s going on, Bertha?” Quasar asked. “I get the feeling there’s something you’re not telling me.”

“It’s nothing that concerns you, honey babe,” Bertha said. Still naked, she rose and strode over to the bar, her big boobs swaying heavily. “As a business owner, you know how it is when smuggling, stealing, or anything similar is pinned on you.”

“Luna Moonstone… Isn’t that the agent who went crazy at a bar and killed her partner and several other people?” When Bertha said nothing, he pressed, “Why do I get the feeling there’s more to this?”

“I don’t have the information I need right now so I really can’t answer your question.”

Quasar walked up behind her and slid his arms around her waist just under her breasts. “You can talk to me, Bertha.”

She turned in his arms and looked up at him. “I know. I really do. But until I learn more about this matter, there’s no sense in worrying you.” She slipped one hand into his trousers and palmed his hardening cock. “We have a few minutes. Why don’t you take my mind off my worries?”

“Ah, you insatiable minx…”

He let her free his cock. It sprang from his pants. She grinned. He was obviously eager to be seated inside her this time. He gripped one of her thighs just behind the knee and hiked her leg up then penetrated her in one thrust.

“Ohhh, Quasar!” She flung her arms around his neck and clung to him. “Fuck me, honey babe.”

Full of his cock, her insides tingling and tightening with her desire, she aided him in hefting her up so she could snap both legs around his waist. With her arms around his neck and legs about his waist, he turned with her and strode to an antique wingback chair with a wide seat and sat with her on his lap.

“Have your way with my cock, beautiful,” he told her. “Get yourself off, then when we settle this matter with the agents, we’ll spend the rest of the night fucking in that big soft bed of yours.”

“Oh, Quasy,” she said, using her baby-talk name for him. “The things you do to me. I just can’t get enough of you, and that’s just not like me.”

“The feeling is mutual, gorgeous.” He pumped his hips so he drove his cock deeper into her and won a squeal and a roll of her eyes. “Now fuck yourself on my dick.”

She needed no further urging. In this position with her ankles locked against the small of his back and Quasar sitting so he was only half on the seat, she could rock and wiggle to her heart’s content. She shifted forward slightly, which pushed his cock deeper into her core. With his cockhead pushed firmly to her cervix, Bertha began a rocking motion that rubbed it there so hard and wonderfully she knew it would take but moments to climax.

Luna couldn’t stop the sounds spilling out of her mouth. Every time Crack pushed into her, stretching her inner walls farther apart than was typical, she groaned, cried out, or whimpered in delight. Fuck, he made her feel so amazing! She couldn’t get enough of Crack’s lovemaking. He was simultaneously rough and gentle, a combination that kept her guessing at what he’d do to her next.

Bent over the passenger seat, her ass almost fully pointed to the ceiling, it gave Crack the best angle to pummel her cunt. He fucked faster, harder, then he’d stop and smooth his hands up and down and around her ass cheeks before thrusting once, twice, maybe three or four more times with the last pump or two more intense than the first ones before exploding into a flurry of motion that nearly sent her over the other side of the seat. But Luna loved every second of it. Prostrate like this, unable to get a firm hold on anything and relying on Crack to hold her secure as he fucked her like a fiend, she reveled in the abandonment and the vulnerability. With each crash of his hips into her ass, another wave of anxiety left her body and mind, slowly freeing her.

He moved his hands to her waist, holding her firmly, then pushed all the way into her and held her that way. Skewered with cock, unable to move, and uncertain what he’d do next, Luna teetered on the edge of completion. The head of his cock persistent against her cervix, she waited.

“Whose name are you going to shout this time, bubbinyata?”

Back and forth Bertha rocked on Quasar’s dick. He pushed his face between her boobs and licked the valley there.

“Oh…” She groaned as she bounced slightly.

Quasar smoothed his face over her left breast until he found the nipple then latched on to it, sucking vigorously.

“Oh fuck!” She bounced harder.

“Come for me, beautiful,” Quasar coaxed. “It’s your turn now.”

She held on to his shoulders, rocking, rubbing, and bobbing so hard she should have unseated herself, but he kept a tight grip on her hips.

Quasar groaned into her boobs, then said, “Don’t take too long.” He gulped. “I have control, but your abandonment right now is going to be my undoing.”

She settled on his cock, driving it as deeply as it could go at this angle. She sat quietly for a moment, eyes closed, and monitored all the sensations spiraling through her body. His cock steely and pulsing slightly inside her as he remained balls deep, his fingers biting into her fleshy hips, the way he panted heavily in an effort to control himself, the scent of his cologne that always intoxicated her, the underlining aroma of his body that shot her pulse into overdrive, and the fact that he truly appreciated her ample curves, almost worshiping them—all of it catapulted her over the edge and into pure euphoria.

Her orgasm crashed into her. She threw her head back, stiffening. She screamed her release, chest arched, breasts heavy, tight and weighing her down, but Quasar still held her steady. At the same time, he stiffened, too, and jerked her rhythmically as he came groaning and murmuring in pleasure. The rapid pulsing, followed by the heat that bathed her inner walls, finished Bertha. She trembled and thrashed then collapsed forward in his arms where she remained breathing heavily into his neck.

Quasar patted her ass. “You’re incredible.”

“So are you, honey babe.”

The creak of splitting wood rent the air, and the chair suddenly lurched to one side, spilling them, still joined, to the carpet. He burst out laughing. Giggling, Bertha hugged him, never happier in her entire life.

Now if only Luna Moonstone didn’t ruin it for her.

Crack’s question nearly ended her orgasm. Instantly, Bob’s face flashed into her mind, the image spearing her in the center of the chest, but Crack took her sudden inhalation as pleasure and thrust a few more times harder yet. She pushed Crack’s words out of her mind and concentrated on his cock.

That sweet spot deep inside her twisted even more. Crack hit that place again, and Luna leaped over the edge into euphoria.

Her com pinged on her shirt.

“Agent Moonstone, backup is docking,” a voice said. “Standby for meeting point.”

She couldn’t respond with her face buried in the seat, her cries muffled, pleasure spiraling throughout her body. Still pounding into her, Crack uttered something that sounded like part ecstasy, part laughter.

“Agent Moonstone?” the voice said. “Respond.”

Another delightful pang pierced her core, and she cried out.

Crack chuckled, grunted, then stiffened abruptly. Warmth coated Luna’s passage. She moaned, his completion inspiring wonderful aftershocks to tremble through her loins and lower belly.

“Agent Moonstone,” the voice said more insistently. “Please respond.”

Huffing, she pushed herself up slightly and fingered the front of her coat for the com.

“Standby,” she said.

“Contact in five,” the person replied.

“Noted,” she panted and cringed.

Deep, rumbling laughter spilled out of Crack. He helped her stand then bent to draw her shorts back up her legs and over her hips. He patted her ass before stepping back to fix his own clothes.

“Oh, shut up,” she said, trying not to smile.

“Come on.” He motioned at the door. “Let’s get going. I’m sure Pet has finalized our check-in.” As she pushed past him, he added, “You didn’t yell my name, bubbinyata.”

The door activated. She glowered at him. She’d had a perfectly good orgasm only to have him ruin it with his reference to her calling out a name.

Luna stepped into the banray tube, a thought popping into her head. Was her human side overriding her Lustonian blood? Could she be in—no! It wasn’t possible. She stopped so abruptly she nearly fell. Surely her human DNA wasn’t giving her any emotional attachments. Again, the answer was no. It just wasn’t possible. Her Lustonian side always controlled her needs and judgements.

Bumping into Luna, Crack looked down at her quizzically. “You all right?”

“I’m fine. Let’s do this.”

She stalked through the banray. Doubts tumbled through her head like meteorites, each one a huge rock of disaster that could wreck her entire world.

She dismissed the unsettling thoughts. It wasn’t possible for anyone who had Lustonian blood to become emotionally attached outside of family ties.

It just wasn’t.

Chapter Seventeen

Quasar helped Bertha up off the zote-carpeted floor then righted the broken chair.

“I will take this back to my store where it will be repaired and restored properly,” he said.

“Aw, thank you.” She padded over to the bed where she retrieved her robe. “You’re too good to me, Quasy.”

Keet rushed into the bedchamber. “Madame!”

Startled, Bertha snapped, “What the hell, Keet! Didn’t I tell you I was not to be disturbed over the weekend?”

“I was going to turn Moonstone away, Madame, but this is urgent. She’s accompanied by a UA team. They plan to take you in, so we need to leave immediately.”

The chair hit the floor with a hollow thump. Quasar stood looking back and forth from Bertha to Keet.

“I think you better fess up to what’s going on, Bertha,” he said. He fastened his pants then waited for her to reply.

Quickly, Bertha gave him the basis of the situation. “But I had no part in the mess on Cerulea 2, Quasy, I promise. Someone tampered with the Fe-adrene in its raw state before it even left the planet for processing. I don’t know why UA would come for me unless someone has somehow framed me for genocide.” She swung her hand out toward Keet. “The question is, why would someone want to pin such a heinous crime on me?”

“Come, Madame! We must go—now!”

Bertha met Quasar’s clear blue eyes and realized she didn’t want to go—even if it meant saving her own skin, she still wanted to remain close to Quasar. He held her gaze. In that instant, she knew he’d never let her go. She loved him, and it was quite clear by his expression that he loved her, too. For the first time in her life, someone had truly captured her heart. The realization both thrilled and frightened her, but what terrified her even more was being torn from Quasar’s side.

“I know you didn’t commit this crime, beautiful.” He approached her where she still stood by the bedside, her robe hanging loosely from her shoulders. Looking directly into her eyes, he smiled. “Stay with me and fight this.”

“She can’t stay with you,” Keet screeched. “She’ll be hauled away by UA never to be seen again. I’ve secured a deserted moon for us, Madame, a place that no one will investigate for years. Even the planet it orbits is uninhabited. I’ve set up a habitation there with everything we could possibly need for many Wavelength years. We can live there without any outside interference. Please, come with me before it’s too late.”

“I’m staying here,” Bertha said with finality. There was no way she could leave Quasar. “I want to be with Quasar.” She snuggled into his outstretched arms, knowing she’d made the right decision. “I love you.”

“And I love you,” he said with a huge smile. “You’re invigorating and an exceptional woman, Bertha. Plus your body is full of heavenly curves.”

She giggled softly as he kissed her.

“I finally have my bodacious beauty all to myself,” he said once he released her and stepped back. “And I plan on enjoying you, body and soul.”

“Oh, Quasy…” Bertha reached up to stroke his beard.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Keet shouted. “This is not happening. I won’t allow it.”

Keet clamped a hand around Bertha’s left wrist and forcefully jerked her away from Quasar, nearly pulling her off her feet in the process.

Catching her footing, Bertha snarled, “What do you think you’re doing? Let go of me!”

“I haven’t gone through hell planning this for us and spending my entire life savings on our new home for you to play house with that pompous ass!” Keet’s eyes flared brighter with her anger, even her dark skull ridge deepened in hue. “You’re coming with me before it’s too late. If we go now, we might get enough of a head start to shake UA.”

Bertha pushed away from Keet, who maintained her tight hold on her wrist, and stared down into the little Istokakian woman’s unnerving gaze. Memories suddenly rushed to the forefront of Bertha’s mind, little things she had thought strange but had brushed off as typical Istokakian behavior.

The countless times she’d caught Keet staring at her as she’d dressed or undressed in her boudoir rose to mind as well as the unnecessary touches and even the encounter in the building’s communal steam baths when Bertha had to make it clear to Keet she was strictly heterosexual.

‘I won’t let anyone hurt you or take you to prison. I’ll find a place to hide where no one will ever find you.’

It all made sense now.

“Holy sun flares,” she whispered. “You’re in love with me, aren’t you? And you’re the one who committed genocide on Cerulea 2.”

“Stay where you are,” a familiar voice shouted.

Bertha looked over Keet’s head to find Luna Moonstone, a huge Fire Heathen, and the little nuisance Ripstinger. Three agents flanked them on either side, weapons ready.

The move Keet made from holding her wrist to pressing a particle weapon into her ribs forced a gasp from Bertha.

“No, don’t!” Quasar barked.

“Back off,” Keet snapped at him.

Slowly, he moved away to stand at the night table.

“I didn’t kill all those people on Cerulea 2,” Bertha said to Luna. “I just now found out that it was…” She glanced pointedly at Keet. “You have to believe me, Luna.”

Luna actually felt sorry for Bertha. The woman’s facial expression, the horror in her eyes, spoke volumes about her emotional and mental state of mind.

“Keet,” Luna said calmly, “step away from Bertha and put your weapon on the floor.”

Keet turned her unholy eyes on Luna and smiled creepily. “I’m not stupid, Lunatic. If I do that, your people will grab me and take me in. Then, if I’m not executed, I’ll be shipped to the worst Purgatory planet of them all for the rest of my life.” She shook her head. “No, I think I’ll continue with my plan of leaving here with Madame.”

Behind Keet, a debonair-looking man, whom Luna did not recognize, took one step toward Bertha. Luna shot him a warning glance. The man hesitated just as Keet jabbed the weapon harder into her boss’ side.

“Don’t try it, Quasy,” Keet said, mimicking Bertha’s voice. “I don’t want to shoot Madame but I will if you leave me no other alternative.”

The man stared back at Luna in a beseeching manner. It was clear he truly cared about Bertha.

“Let’s talk about this,” Crack stated.

“What’s to talk about?” Keet shot back. “I’m taking Madame out of here. You’re going to let us go. If you don’t, I’ll kill her then myself. Let us go—and no one is to follow us—and we’ll all have a happy ending.”

“You know we can’t allow that,” Luna said. “Besides, Cerulea 2 didn’t get a happy ending, so why should you?”

“That’s the deal,” Keet returned coolly. “I just offed an entire planet, so what makes you think I won’t take my life and”—she nudged Bertha, the action jiggling Bertha’s massive boobs—“Madame’s, too? If we can’t be together in this life, then we’ll be together in the next one.”

“Why, Keet?” Luna prompted to keep her talking. Maybe she could find some chinks in Keet’s cool, calculating façade that she could use to break her down and get the upper hand. “Why commit genocide? What did the Ceruleans do to you?”

“Nothing.” The smirk Keet offered Luna sent a chill over her skin. “It wasn’t my idea, but once I thought about the proposed plan, I realized what better way to prove my love to Bertha and get rid of you for good.”

“I don’t love you, Keet,” Bertha said, her voice cracking with fear. “You are my employee, my second-in-command for Bendlight Enterprises, that is all. I’ve never had any feelings for you other than friendship. I thought I made it clear that night in the company steam baths?” She inhaled sharply, a teary sound in her voice. “How could you murder all those people in the name of love? It’s a load of zote shit.”

Next to Luna, Pet moved forward half a step. Luna stayed her with a stern glance. Reluctantly, Pet held her ground.

“If I take you away from him”—Keet jerked her head backward to indicate the man—“you’ll think clearly again and realize we’re meant to love each other.”

Bertha shook her head vigorously. “No, Keet. I won’t. You’re wrapped up in a twisted fantasy. It’s all in your head. I’ve never given you any encouragement that we could be romantically involved.” She gulped. “How could you murder an entire planet of people? Why? Why would you commit such a heinous act?”

“For you, Madame.”

With the tip of the particle weapon, Keet trailed it over Bertha’s shoulder and down her thick upper arm, her movements suggesting eroticism. Bertha shuddered in obvious revulsion. Luna could tell the big woman was afraid it would be the one thing that might make Keet snap completely.

First, Luna had to get a complete confession out of Keet, then she’d watch for the perfect moment to disarm and subdue her.

Bertha kept staring at Luna, who barely nodded once. She hoped Bertha understood she should keep Keet talking.

“Genocide for me, Keet?” Bertha said, somehow catching Luna’s meaning. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It makes perfect sense,” Keet insisted, her tone petulant. “Morrin said I could show the entire Wavelength Galaxy how much I love you while removing the biggest problem in your life.” She turned her creepy neon purple eyes on Luna again. “You, Lunatic. You’ve been a constant moon shard in Madame’s ass for as long as I can remember.”

Luna battled to maintain her composure. She had to play it calm, make sure she had all the facts.

“Morrin?” Luna said, playing dumb. “Who’s Morrin?”

“Oh, please,” Keet said snidely. “Agent Morrin, the only one who knows you for the psychotic murderer you are. Does the incident at the Lightspeed Lounge ping your neurons?”

As it always did, the memory of that night and the innocent people she had inadvertently killed surged to the surface like a leviathan, but she didn’t let it claim her this time. Keet, the crazy bitch who had just carried out genocide, was calling her a psychotic murderer?

“You’re a menace to the galaxy, Lunatic.” Keet glanced quickly at the man behind her then back at Luna. “You killed innocent people, you took Morrin’s brother from him over something as petty as job advancement, and you’ve made Madame’s life miserable, as well as interfering in her business matters. Morrin’s idea made sense.”

“What idea?” Crack asked.

Keet flicked her gaze over at him. “Agent Morrin came to me with the plan of erasing the population of Cerulea 2. Since the Ceruleans wanted little contact with anyone outside their planet, they wouldn’t be missed. Fe-adrene could be mined without all the Cerulean laws and restrictions on the pharmaceutical companies. Without restrictions and high fees, Bendlight Enterprises would make more money.” She caressed Bertha’s arm with the weapon again.

Bertha grimaced.

“And when Madame is making money,” Keet continued, “she’s happy. The plan was to pin the genocide on you, Lunatic, because it could be tied to the Lightspeed Lounge shooting, but Stellarman had to stick his nose into Morrin’s plans, interrupting his interrogation of you. Morrin was severely reprimanded. He’s probably still sitting in a confinement cell awaiting further questioning as we speak.”

“Morrin is unstable,” Luna stated. “He needs help, and so do you, Keet. Let’s come to an agreement so no one gets hurt.”

Keet shoved the weapon into Bertha’s ribs, forcing her to inhale sharply. Behind her, the man stiffened, fear on his face, body poised to leap on Keet.

“Do you really want to be stupid?” Crack asked. “It will not end well.”

“What difference does it make now?” A tinny, maniacal laugh burst from Keet. “All you can do to avoid more lives being lost is to allow me to leave with Madame.”

“Since we’re telling all,” Luna interjected, “how did you manage to kill an entire planet of people?”

A derisive snort filled the room. Keet eyed Luna with disdain then snorted again. “It was too easy, really. I told Madame her shipment of Fucking Goo prototypes had disappeared, that none of the people I’d sent to investigate could locate the shipment, so she sent me to handle it. I took a toxin called zinvaste, which can be vaporized with a single drop of moisture, whether pure water, urine, even saliva.”

“It’s used to separate ores in mining,” Crack said.

“Exactly,” Keet said, nodding. “You’re not as stupid as you look. Anyway, when zinvaste vapor interacts with Fe-adrene and it’s inhaled by females, it makes them sex crazy. Once a female engages in a kiss or sex with a male, he’s infected through the exchange of bodily fluids. The euphoria lasts only a short time before the toxin kills.”

“So you and your accomplices conveniently placed the toxin in the mines and shipping vessels, others planted in strategic positions initiated the vaporization of it, then you sat back to watch it spread from the air to the females who then transferred it to males,” Luna finished for her.

“It took several days to spread across the entire planet,” Keet replied, “but it worked.” Her crazy laughter filled the bedchamber. “Talk about wild, crazy orgies! I truly enjoyed the reports from my colleagues. Females kissing their boyfriends or husband in greeting at a luncheon date, young couples out strolling at the parks who shared a kiss, others having a normal night of sex…” She sighed deeply, heavily, as though she pined for a firsthand view of each fatal encounter. “It worked out so well, so effortlessly. Once women passed on the chemical, it spread faster than any disease or toxin of which I’ve ever heard.”

“You murdered a good friend of mine,” Luna stated.

“Oh? Did I?” She air-kissed at Luna. “Poor baby.”

“Cayamatta served the Cerulean Government well, but in your case, you’re—”

With a big hand placed on Luna’s elbow, Crack said, “Luna, don’t. Remember protocol.”

“To hell with protocol,” she whispered under her breath.

“Yeah, Luna. Don’t,” Keet repeated sickeningly sweet. “Now, if you’ll all excuse us, Madame and I have a transport to catch.”

Chapter Eighteen

Bertha battled within herself to comprehend the situation. She couldn’t believe this was happening, that her second-in-command, of all people, was a murderer, a person who had planned and carried through the genocide of millions.

There was no way she’d let Keet ruin her chances of being with Quasar, nor was she taking the fall for everything Keet had done, thereby destroying Bendlight Enterprises in the process. She wasn’t going down without a fight and, strangely enough, it seemed Luna was on her side.

“We almost had you in the mine, didn’t we, Keet?” Luna said. “But I have to admit you were exceptionally smart by faking the broken respirator.”

Keet’s freaky laughter swirled around them in a toxic cloud of insanity. “You’re all lucky you didn’t arrive a few minutes earlier or everyone would be dead from the toxin, too.” She hooted gleefully. “Dead just like the Ceruleans.”

Meeting Luna’s gaze across the room, Bertha tried to convey she was about to take action. Luna quirked an eyebrow at her. Did that mean Luna understood or that Luna thought she was crazy to try anything?

“Let’s go, Madame,” Keet said, once more pushing the weapon into her sensitive ribs.

Keet tugged her a few inches more away from Quasar, nearly wrenching the robe off Bertha’s shoulders. Powerless, Bertha did the only thing she could think of at that moment. She clenched her hand into a fist, spun around, and punched Keet square in the mouth. It was enough to startle her second-in-command, but not with adequate force her to let go. Before Keet could retaliate, Bertha drew back and aimed for Keet’s nose, swinging as hard as she could. A wail of pain burst from Keet. She released Bertha’s arm and staggered away from her with both hands cupped over her nose.

“Madame, please!”

Keet stared at her with an expression of surprise, pain, and emotional turmoil. The look on her face disturbed Bertha, but it also stirred a sense of guilt. Bertha blinked. Guilt? Since when did she have remorse about anything?

“We’re meant to be together,” Keet went on. She shot a glance over at Luna standing with the squad. “Why are you doing this?”

“That question goes both ways, Keet,” Bertha said.

As much as her second-in-command troubled her right now, she had to steel herself against her rising sympathy for Keet’s plight. Bertha understood the desire for real love and friendship. Loneliness created a bitter heart. Until she’d met Quasar, she hadn’t realized how lonely she’d been or that she needed someone special in whom to confide. She threaded her fingers with Quasar’s, and he responded by nuzzling her hair. Yes, she did love Quasar. She loved him so much there were no words to describe it.

“What do you mean?” Keet asked.

“Your reasons for nearly wiping a race of people from the galaxy forever are inexcusable. Not even your love for me justifies your heinous act.”

“But if she”—Keet whipped one bony arm toward Luna, pointing at her with her twig-like index finger—“hadn’t fucked everything up, she would’ve been pinned with the crime and waiting on death row right now. You would have been free of Moonstar’s constant meddling, her constant delving into your business affairs to nail you for a crime that would put you away forever. Love must make it right! Everything I’ve done has been solely for you, Madame, so we can be together!”

“As I told you a few minutes ago, Keet…” Suddenly exhausted, Bertha walked slowly backwards to Quasar until her ass was pressed firmly to him.

He slipped his arms around her waist. His touch and warmth gave her strength.

“I don’t love you,” Bertha said. “I never have and I never will. I thought the incident in the steam baths would have proven it to you. I’m sorry, though. I really am, because it’s not my intention to hurt you. It’s just the way things are, the way life works out each person’s destiny.”

“Well said, my lovely.” Quasar whispered it so low in her ear she almost didn’t hear him.

She squeezed his hand gently.

The emotion drained from Keet’s face and eyes. The flat, dead mien that replaced it frightened Bertha more than the particle weapon in Keet’s hand. Bertha pushed back against Quasar’s body even more. Slowly, he released her hand then shifted her around to his side and behind him, using his own body as a shield.

Keet raised her gaze to look at Quasar who now faced her. Anger flashed in her eyes, brightening their eerie purple to electric violet.

“I am not letting this fifty-fifty whore ruin what I have worked so hard to accomplish for us, Madame.” She whirled, gun held out, arm rigid, and pointed the particle weapon directly at Luna.

The pistol flashed, and a particle beam zipped toward Luna so fast she had no time to move. Pain seared her left ear. She slapped a hand over it, the burn of the flesh bringing tears to her eyes, and leaped toward a display table where a tea set gleamed in its center. Pandemonium erupted. Everyone fired their weapons at Keet, who jumped behind a broken chair laying on its side.

Luna flipped the table over and used its Blugavian pearl top as a shield against Keet’s shots. The tea set hit the floor with a delicate crack and the tinkle of breaking porcelain. Bertha actually raised her head with the energy beams zinging past her, stared in Luna’s direction, and offered her a filthy expression. Before she could shout anything at Luna, Bertha’s lover flattened one hand on top of her head and pushed her back down to the floor.

In moments, the zip and zing of beams and other weapons whittled Keet’s protection down until it barely guarded her. The aromas of various melting fibers, smoldering wood, and seared flesh floated in a flat vaporous cloud over the boudoir. Sparks flared then died once the melting process began on bedding, carpets, and upholstery. Keet managed to hit two of the agents closest to her, the scent of burned flesh joining the odiferous assault.

The smell turned Luna’s stomach. She gulped, staring through the clear tabletop and locating two potential places Keet might try to reach for safety. One was the far side of the bed. The man Bertha was with managed to crawl to it with her, where the couple then hunkered down. The only other spot for Keet to use as a blockade was a large vanity, a position even farther away than the bed. Luna glanced over at Pet to get her input on the situation only to find she wasn’t at her side.

“Fuck,” she whispered.

She tried not to panic. Where was the little Ripstinger?

Movement behind and slightly to her right grabbed her attention. She turned, but instead of finding Pet there, Crack scrambled toward her. He rolled his eyes skyward, indicating she should, too, then jerked his head slightly to enforce it. Luna glanced at the ceiling.

There, stuck to the intricately detailed tile, hung Pet. The tiny Ripstinger slowly made her way across the ceiling, her neck wings ablur with motion. The iridescence of her wings glowed in the flashes of gunfire.

“What is she doing?” Luna mouthed slowly at Crack.

He shrugged helplessly. Scrambling toward Luna, he ducked two beams shot in his direction by Keet. He dropped to his belly and rolled the last few feet to the overturned table.

Crack nearly smooshed her against the underside of the table in an attempt to speak so she could hear him. “Keet is going to make a run for it.”

“I know. She has no choice. One more shot to what’s left of that chair and her protection is gone.”

“It’s going to take a couple really good shots to put her down before she reaches that back exit. Istokakians are fast.”

Realization struck Luna. “Ripstingers are even faster.”

He frowned, puzzled, then comprehension brightened his eyes.

In that instant, Pet paused directly over Keet’s position and craned her neck, looking down at Luna. Somehow Luna understood what Pet wanted.

“Cease fire,” Luna shouted. “Cease fire!”

The last four agents stopped shooting but maintained their positions. At the bed, Bertha and the man peeked over its rumpled covers. With a quick and subtle hand motion, Luna conveyed they should stay put. The man nodded slightly.

Keet jumped to her feet, whirled in the direction of the back exit, and managed one full step before Pet dropped from the ceiling. She mashed Keet facedown on the floor, arms over her head, feet kicking. Long, gleaming black barbs developed on the outside edges of Pet’s forearms. The stingers continued lengthening until the tips passed her fingers. A blob of venom appeared on the tips and sparkled there, each one a lovely emerald globe of death. Pet drew her arms back, each hand poised at her waist.

“Pet, no!”

Pet stiffened. “Why? She murdered everyone on Cerulea 2, and she would have killed you, too. A piece of shit like Keet deserves to pay for the atrocities she has committed!”

The quivering throughout Pet’s body alerted Luna she was seconds away from taking Keet’s life. Luna jumped to her feet and walked over to stand behind Pet, where she crouched across Keet’s back.

“Get off of me, you pathetic Ripstinger!” Keet snarled.

Pet leaned over farther, pressing Keet’s shoulders flush with the floor, and waved one dripping stinger under her nose. “Who’s pathetic? Surely it’s not me. You’re a murderer and will die for your crimes.”

“That’s right, Pet,” Luna said as calmly as she could, “but let’s make it a slow death.”

Wings suddenly beating in a blur again, Pet straightened, barbs still poised to strike, and shot a sidelong glance at Luna. “How?”

“We process Keet, she gets her trial, and without a doubt she will be sent to Purgatory 3.”

“So she waits for her death sentence to be carried out,” Pet said. “How is that a slow death? She deserves worse.”

“Think it through,” Luna said. “Who else is imprisoned on Purgatory 3?”

“The worst of the worst criminals.”

“Yes, and who does that include?”

Behind Luna, Crack chuckled gently. Luna tossed a smile over at him and caught the knowing grins of the other agents now flanking him.

A titter escaped Pet. She swatted Keet on the back of the head. “You are so fucked!”

“I’ll own that place within six months,” Keet said.

“I suppose the incarcerated Ceruleans at Purgatory 3 might allow that, but I highly doubt it,” Pet quipped then giggled. “I’m sure you’ve heard what is said about a Cerulean who turns criminal.”

Quiet descended on the room. Keet lay still for a moment, obviously thinking about what Pet meant, then she erupted into a fit of kicking and squirming. She screamed obscenities, her cries so intense her voice cracked and faded many times.

Pet slid off of her. The agents hauled her into a standing position then applied glow bonds to her wrists and ankles before also gagging her. Keet flopped and wriggled, her screams of outrage now muffled by the glow gag in her mouth. An agent read Keet her rights as two other agents, one on either side of her, firmly grasped her by her upper arms and dragged her out of Bertha’s boudoir.

A flash of color zipped around and in front of Luna. She found Pet standing directly in front of her. She smiled down at her assistant.

“I’m sorry I nearly popped a brainbit,” Pet said, her expression sincere. “I’m really struggling to process what Keet did to all those people, but when she was determined to kill you, too, I…” Her lower lip wobbled. She flicked her gaze to the floor. “I couldn’t let her.”

Helpless, Luna didn’t know what to say. Emotions were difficult for her to understand and experience. Awkwardly, she placed a hand on Pet’s shoulder.

“You’re tormented by what Keet has done,” Luna said. “It’s perfectly normal.  And you did great, Pet, really.”

With effort, Pet raised her eyes to look at Luna again. At the brightness in Pet’s gaze, something pierced Luna directly under her breastbone. She mentally groped for the right thing to say, words which might possibly smooth balm over the wound left gaping in Pet’s mind. And, Luna suddenly realized, her own as well. The only words that would come to her were the facts.

“Just know the rest of us who witnessed the slain are trying to get a handle on the senselessness of it, too, so you’re not alone in this. I don’t think those memories will ever go away, Pet, but you can use them to make yourself stronger, to fight that much harder for what is right. Remember those people whenever you aid in stopping another fiend from murdering someone, providing you want to keep this job working with me.”

“Of course I do!”

“Then when you do remember the Ceruleans, they will know their deaths were not in vain.”

“Do you really believe that?” Pet asked.

She shifted her attention to Bertha waiting a few feet away. The distraction gave her a moment to ponder Pet’s question. Finally, she said, “Yes, Pet. I really do believe the Ceruleans will know. We live in a wondrous universe. It’s too vast and mysterious for death to be the final ending. The Ceruleans are somewhere safe now, and I trust they are watching us.”

Nodding, Pet snapped her wings out, straightening them, then folded them primly over her shoulder blades. “I’m glad. You certainly need to believe in something. If you can help me heal, then you can heal, too.” She took a few steps, then halted. Without looking at her, Pet added, “But you have to acknowledge that it’s okay to heal. Don’t carry the scars everywhere with you, nor let them dictate where you go.”

Luna gaped at her little companion as she hurried across the boudoir to report to Stellerman who had just entered the chambers to assess the scene. Medics rushed onto the scene and set up their gear next to the two wounded agents. One spotted Luna with her hand over her ear. She approached and inspected the wound.

Off to Luna’s side, a voice said, “Hey, Lunatic…uhm, Agent Moonstone.”

Damn. Luna didn’t know if she was ready to deal with Bertha right this moment. She turned and faced the buxom woman sashaying across the floor scattered with luxurious zote carpets. Even with the damage on the walls and the damaged furniture, the opulence of Bertha’s quarters still outshone the destruction. In the center of it all, her hips and breasts swaying, Bertha Bendlight presented the image of a wealthy, very determined, and incredibly strong personality. Despite some of Bertha’s unappealing qualities, Luna found she admired the businesswoman.

“You knew, didn’t you?”

“Knew what?” Luna questioned.

The medic spritzed the top of Luna’s ear with something and said, “You’re lucky you didn’t lose the entire ear. I’ve sprayed skin sealant laced with an antibiotic on it, so it will heal with barely a scar. Don’t get it wet for twenty-four hours.”

“Thank you,” Luna stated.

The medic nodded and strode over to help her fellow workers.

“You knew Keet was the murderer,” Bertha continued, “as well as the one behind the issues Bendlight Enterprises has been experiencing.”

“Not at first, I didn’t,” Luna replied carefully. “I really thought you were up to no good, but I did get this strange sense something was off with your second-in-command.”

“I feel responsible for—” Bertha’s voice cracked. Stricken, she stared hopelessly at Luna, her eyes glassy, a bloom of pink creeping up from her breasts and into her neck. She snagged her lower lip between her teeth for a couple of seconds then blinked rapidly. After drawing a deep breath, she seemed to regain control over her emotions. “I feel responsible for all those people.” The words came out in a hoarse whisper. She drew in another deep breath, held it, then let it out slowly. “Keet was my employee, after all.”

A puff of colored smoke wafted between them, partially obscuring Bertha. It gave Luna a moment to gather her thoughts. The flashy tycoon was always composed—even when she lost her temper she still controlled it somehow—but this…this was a side of her that unnerved Luna.

Once the smoke passed, Luna shook her and replied, “No, Bertha. You are not responsible for what Keet did. It’s clear Keet is deranged and she took matters into her own hands. She planned the Cerulean genocide. Although in her mind it was done for you, it does not mean you are accountable.”

Bertha snorted. “First time that’s ever happened.”

A chuckle escaped Luna. “I guess you have a point.”

The silver-haired man walked up behind Bertha and placed his hands on her shoulders.

“I still need you and your gentleman friend to answer some questions,” Luna said.

“I figured as much.” Gesturing toward her wardrobe, Bertha asked, “May I get dressed first?”

“Sure.”

“By the way, you owe me for that tea set you destroyed.” With a jerk of her head indicating the broken porcelain off to the side, Bertha scowled and batted a thick lock of deep-red hair out of her face. The gentleman placed a hand on her neck, the action calming her. “That set came from my Quasar.” She favored him with a brilliant smile then glowered at Luna. “It’s irreplaceable, but I’m sure UA will make it right.”

“Indeed,” Luna stated. “After you’re done being questioned, request that your interviewer file a loss of property claim for you.”

“Good. Thank you.”

With the man’s arm around her waist, Bertha walked away but stopped and turned slightly.

“Agent Moonstone?”

“Yes?”

“I may not like you,” Bertha said, “but you’re okay. And I’m sorry for calling you Lunatic.”

She cuddled into her man’s embrace and let him guide her back to her dressing area.

Luna stared after her, unsure how to react or what to say. She finally decided Bertha Bendlight was okay, too. At least for now.

Chapter Nineteen

Their transport ship engaged with the freighter. Relief flowed through Luna. A meal and a few drinks were the only things on her mind.

“The past two days have been exhausting,” Pet said. “I’m too tired right now to even flap my wings. I’m glad we have the week off. I need it.” She slipped out of her harness then stepped out into the aisle where she hopped up and down in one spot, waiting for Luna to join her.

“How can you possibly be exhausted when you’re practically vibrating with energy right now?” Luna questioned. She glanced over at Crack, who shot her an amused expression. “You wear me out just watching you.”

“Well, for Ripstingers this is what tired looks like.” With a slight sniff, Pet hurried over to the door.

“I’m sorry, Pet.” Joining her at the door, Luna glanced down at her tiny assistant. “Let me buy you a drink to make up for it.”

“And a meal?” Pet stared up at her hopefully.

“Yes.” Chuckling, Luna nodded. “And a meal.”

“I am hungry, too,” Crack stated behind Luna.

The door dematerialized. A long transport tube stretched ahead and connected to the freighter on the other end. Pet disappeared into the dim walkway.

Luna rolled her eyes at Crack. “You’re always hungry.”

“I wasn’t talk about food.”

She shot him a look of exasperation. “As tempting as that is, I have to agree with Pet. I’m beat.”

“Beat me instead,” Crack said and grasped her waist. He pulled her back against him, nestling his arousal in the crack of her ass. “We could both use some tension relief after the past two days wrapping up the genocide case.”

She laughed softly. “I may be a creature of carnal delights, but I do need food to refuel.”

Actually, she wanted to see Crater Bob. It had been days since he’d saved her from the Rockman. She wanted to thank him properly. If he hadn’t been keeping an eye on her, she might be dead right now, or worse, depending on what the Rockman had had in mind for her.

Crack slid one of his rough palms over her lower abdomen and into her crotch. Heat flared in her pussy, and Luna fought the sensation. He rubbed his index and middle fingers back and forth across her exposed cunt then slid first one then the other finger into her passage.

“Mmm…” She gulped.

Crack pistoned his fingers in and out of her.

“Oh…” She closed her eyes. “That feels…feels so good.”

“I want you, bubbinyata,” he said. “Right here. Right now.”

“Hey,” Pet’s voice traveled down the corridor. “Can’t you two wait until after we have dinner?”

“Go find us seats,” Crack hollered back.

“But I’m starved,” Pet wailed.

With his free hand, he hit the sensor to the compartment, and the door materialized, silencing Pet’s pleas for them to hurry up.

“Just a quick fuck,” he murmured in Luna’s ear. “Just enough to take the edge off until later.”

“I…”

Lust fired through her veins and settled in her pussy. Oh, who was she kidding? She was a fifty-fifty, a creature ruled by her libido because her sire was a Lustonian. She couldn’t deny herself a moment of sexual pleasure unless it was someone she did not find sexually attractive. Crack was huge, and he had cocks to pleasure her literally to the brink of death if she so desired. And, despite the fact she’d met him when he was being an obnoxious drunk, he’d turned out to be pleasant company and easy on the eyes. She never would have dreamed the day she met him would lead to numerous bouts of fucking each other, rounds of sex she’d always remember and relive.

“So?” he whispered, sending gooseflesh down her neck. “Want my big, hard cock inside you?”

Luna couldn’t take it any longer and spun around in his arms. She cupped the bulge in his pants. He grunted, grinned, and released the adhesive strip. His dick sprang free, then he hoisted her by her waist and brought her down on his member without hesitation.

His cock pushed her inner walls wide, filled her to almost too full, and rubbed delightfully against her cervix.

“Oh, yeah,” she whispered. “That’s it, baby.”

He raised and lowered her several times, impaling her over and over. Luna relished each stroke, reveled in how his cock touched every inner part of her and left her craving more. She couldn’t get enough of her Fourpeck Fire Heathen.

Crack walked with her down the short aisle, then lowered her so the upper part of her hips were braced on the padded arm of the seat, and draped her backward over it. Her breasts surged over the top of her jacket, their weight seemingly heavier in her upside-down position. He started a slow in-and-out motion where he pressed his cock all the way into her, withdrew slowly, then repeated the action.

“Yes…” she cried. Already the coil inside her teetered on its snapping point. He felt so good, fucking her slowly, then fast, then imbedding his cock fully inside her and holding it there until she thought she’d split from the fullness. He was insatiable, and so was she.

“I can’t get enough of you, bubbinyata,” he whispered.

“Fuck me.” She reached between her legs when he drew back and fondled his balls. “Come on, baby. Fuck me.”

He needed no further urging and pummeled her. In moments, the tightening inside her reached its summit and exploded. She screamed, stiffening as sensation coursed through her pussy, up into her belly, and shot tingling into her breasts. Crack growled, but instead of coming, he kept pumping into her even harder. His pubic area hit her crotch, creating a slapping noise, and still he hammered into her, her breasts bouncing so wildly they peeled free of her adhesive bra.  Another orgasm built in her. She whined and moaned as it reached its crescendo.

Crack kept fucking her, his fingers digging into the fleshy part of her hips where he held her steady. He grunted repeatedly, each time louder than the one before it.

The orgasm struck Luna, but since she’d already climaxed, the second one was deeper, softer but still mind-blowing. She let herself relax and rode it out, the fluttering in her passage initiating a low, keening whine out of her.

At the thrumming in her core, Crack stiffened. Warmth coated Luna’s insides, and she gasped in delight as he coaxed the last few drops of himself into her core.

“Fuck, that felt amazing,” he said.

“Amazing,” she mumbled, her pussy still throbbing.

Banging on the transport door startled Luna out of her sex fugue.

“Come on, guys. I’m hungry. Finish up or I’m going to beg Stellarman to revoke your license to fuck!”

Luna and Crack burst out laughing.

Scanning Crater Bob’s place, Luna finally spotted Pet waiting at a table close to the back bar. Miffed, Pet stared hard at her. As Luna approached the bar, she wondered where Bob was that night. Although early, the place was already filling up with customers. Thankfully, no nikto music was playing, only the sounds of various sports programs on the hover screens and the blended voices of patrons filled the joint. Even the gaming tables were quiet for the moment.

She crossed the remainder of the metallic floor and moved over to the chair against the wall so Crack would have more room by the aisle. The aromas of liquor and spicy foods hung in the air, but luckily the crowd that smoked mineral powders hadn’t arrived yet. Another waft of spicy cuisine settled over their table, and Luna’s belly grumbled in response.

“I already ordered for all of us, including your favorite drinks,” Pet told her. “I couldn’t wait any longer.”

“Lots of food?” Crack asked.

Pet nodded.

“Good.” He grinned at the server who appeared and set a frosted mug of glowing blue ale in front of him. “Keep these coming.”

The server dipped her head, set Luna’s glass down, dropped an amber capsule onto the mineral ice, then deposited Pet’s drink just as the Event Horizon pill in Luna’s glass activated and filled her tumbler.

“Mmm, Adrenaline Jolt,” Pet said. “I’ve wanted one of these all day.”

Pet gulped down her bubbling drink then held her cup out for more. Quickly, the server added a brown cube. From her tray, she used tiny tongs and plopped a small ember from a small earthen pot into the cup, too. The cube instantly melted, bubbling up to the rim of the cup. Aromatic steam drifted over the table. Once Pet was happy with her second cup of Adrenaline Jolt, the server hurried off to greet a group of miners who had just entered the bar.

Luna smiled at the irony of Pet’s drink choice. “Just what a Ripstinger needs. Adrenaline Jolt will keep you wide awake for a week with your hyperactive habits.”

“Told you I was exhausted.”

Shaking her head at her little assistant, she couldn’t help herself from perusing the place for a glimpse of Crater Bob.

“I don’t think he’s here,” Pet said. “Most nights he’s usually working the back bar by this time.”

“He?” Crack asked.

“Crater Bob.” Pet rose and looked across the crowd. Once seated again, she said, “No, I don’t see him anywhere unless he’s in his quarters.”

The urge to find Bob and talk to him proved too much. Luna drank the last of her whiskey then stood. She squeezed between Crack and the patron sitting behind him.

“Where are you going?” Crack asked, his gaze narrowing.

“I have to talk to Bob,” she said, “and thank him for saving my life.” At the pissed-off expression on Crack’s face, she leaned over and met his eyes. “A license to fuck, remember? No relationship. No emotion.” She shrugged. “I’m incapable of most emotions anyway.”

“Really?” Crack’s face hardened. “Judging by how desperate you are to find Crater Bob, I think it is a load of zote shit.”

Tittering drifted from Pet.

Luna shot her a fierce glare. Although Pet silenced her laughter, she stared back at her with mirth and defiance.

“You’re both pains in my ass,” Luna groused.

Chapter Twenty

Luna ignored several admiring glances as she headed to Bob’s quarters. She managed to dodge a large human male who had risen and began walking straight toward her. She made her way down the shiny, metallic corridor, passed Friggly’s office, which was closed for the business day, and mounted half a dozen steps to Bob’s chambers.

At Bob’s door, she halted, one finger suspended over the sensor to buzz him. Why was she so nervous? Crack’s observation about her and Bob had irritated her to the point of wanting to slap him. Even Pet believed she was hung up on Bob. All she wanted to do was thank him for saving her life.

She started as the door suddenly slid aside. “Oh!”

“Luna?” Crater Bob regarded her with surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“I stopped by because I never got to thank you for saving my life.”

“You didn’t have to make a special trip here,” he replied. “I could tell you were grateful the day it happened. Regardless, there’s no need to thank me. You would have done the same for me if needed.”

The moment she locked gazes with him, something deep inside her chest twisted painfully. She sucked in an abrupt breath and leaned against the wall.

He frowned at her. “You okay?”

“I’m fine. It’s been a rough few days.”

“Yeah, it’s all over the newscasts and the cyber sites.” He stepped through the threshold. The door slid shut. Once he’d locked it with an eye scan, he turned, facing her. “What is it with you attracting killers of late? First the Rockman, then Bertha Bendlight’s second-in-command. Who’s next?”

“Actually, Senior Agent Morrin was involved in getting rid of me, too. And let’s not forget Harvey Hailstorm a few months ago. Might as well include him.”

He snagged the vacuum pack he had slung over his shoulder and set it on the floor at his feet then stood looking at her for a long moment. Bob cupped her cheek, stroking his thumb over her lower lip.

“Damn, Luna. You’re adept at self-defense, crafty when the need calls for it, intelligent, and you have this amazing talent to read expressions and body language, but lately it seems like you need someone to watch out for you.” He leaned in to her and brushed his lips over hers. “And as much as I would like to be that person, I can’t. You have to decide who you are.” He kissed her again, more soundly this time. “And who you want to be with, if that’s even possible for you.”

The proximity of his body, the heat emanating from him, his touch, and the intoxicating aroma of his personal scent blended with a cologne of spices and citrus almost proved Luna’s undoing. Desire thrummed in her loins. Her heart crashed crazily against her ribs. Something ached so intensely under her breasts she couldn’t draw a breath. She placed her hand over his to keep it on her face, fearful of losing the contact.

“Are you going somewhere?” She flicked her gaze down at the pack then back up to his eyes. “That’s a passenger bag meant for a long travel through space.”

“Yes, I’ll be gone for a few weeks…maybe even months. Friggly is going to run things until I get back.”

She gaped at him. “Weeks or months?”

He shrugged. “No idea how long I’ll be gone. I just need to…to get away and have some quiet time to think about several things in my life. I can’t do it if I have to focus on running Crater Bob’s.” He dropped his hand and stepped back. “This place is lucrative, but it’s nonstop chaos. I need to go somewhere I don’t have distractions.”

She knew distractions actually meant her. “You think I’m just leading you on.”

“No.” He shook his head. “No, I don’t. I think you’re controlled by your DNA.”

“Stay,” she urged. “Let’s go into your quarters right now and—”

“No, Luna. Although you’re proof Heaven has curves,” he swept his gaze down her body then back up again, “it’s not your body I want.”

“Then what is it you do want?” she asked, puzzled.

He smiled sadly, his gaze pinned to hers. She loved his clear aquamarine eye color, so bright, so captivating. Now, instead of the brilliant hue, soft gray and pain tainted them. She’d never seen him upset this way before, and it troubled her.

“That’s the problem,” Bob continued, his voice low. “I don’t think you’re capable of giving me what I want, and that’s where my brain and my heart argue.” He picked up the pack, slung the strap over his shoulder, then deposited a kiss so light on her mouth she almost didn’t feel it. At the bottom of the steps, he said, “When my head is clear, I’ll be back.”

Desperate to say something to keep him there a few seconds longer, she asked, “Where are you going?”

“Home.” He didn’t turn to look up at her, as if he feared he might change his mind and stay after all. “Goodbye, Luna.”

As he strode down the corridor, Bob whistled an old Earth tune, a fun melody, one completely contradicting their situation. He’d told her once what it was called, but now she couldn’t dredge up the title of it. For some reason the fact she couldn’t remember disturbed her deeply.

“But where is home?” she called after his retreating back. “What planet?”

Exiting the hall, he stepped into the crowd, her words lost in the corridor behind him. Luna watched him for as long as she could before he vanished from her sight. The instant she could no longer see him, a knot wedged in her throat. She gulped several times, the lump refusing to move. She realized she didn’t know anything truly personal about Crater Bob other than the little world she entered here for screwing, eating a meal, or having a few drinks. She had no idea on which planet he’d been born and raised, what type of music he preferred, what his favorite color was, or even if he liked to read. All she did know about him was that he was fun yet often pensive. Also, she understood what he liked her to do to him during sex. Bob was an amazing lover, one she craved when she was away on long cases.

Those were four things she could tick off on one hand. Even if she wanted to, she had no real life to share with anyone. She worked, finished a case, then moved on to the next one and, whenever possible, she enjoyed great sex. How could Bob have feelings for her when he really didn’t know much about her either? Now even the sexual connection with him was gone.

Luna stood there for a long time. She pondered questions about Bob that had no answers. Memories of them fucking in one of the booths or here in his quarters tormented her. One minute after another passed with Luna struggling to ward off the pain building beneath her breasts. How could he just leave like this? If she hadn’t been here he never would have told her goodbye. The moment the thought entered her head, it brought her full circle to her previous realization. So why was she so tormented by his departure? It didn’t make sense.

She remained rooted to the spot until finally Pet scurried toward her, neck wings ablur. She stopped at the bottom of the steps and looked up at Luna with concern.

“Bob not here?” she asked quietly.

“He was. Now he’s gone.”

A deep line appeared between Pet’s eyebrows. “Where did he go?”

“Home.”

“He went back to Earth? Why?”

“Earth? That’s where he’s from?”

“Sure,” Pet said with conviction. “His parents have been passed for many years, but he still has a sister, a niece, and two nephews.”

Even Pet had more information about Bob than she did.

Folding her wings over her shoulders, Pet kept watching her. “Are you all right?
      “Yes.” Luna descended the steps. “Is our meal ready?”

“That’s why I came looking for you. It’s getting cold.”

“Let’s go eat,” Luna said.

Instead of returning to headquarters, Luna decided to rent sleeping cabins on the freighter and leave the next morning. Crack and Pet had agreed, both stating they were too sleepy to bother with warp travel. Sometime in the night Crack had crept into her bed. Now, he lay snoring softly on his side. Luna stared up at the black ceiling. Thoughts, which seemed as numerous as the stars, tumbled through her mind.

Bodacious Bertha was innocent, and the investigation into her dealings with Femdrene had been dropped. Senior Agent Morrin was awaiting trial. Keet was in custody and doomed to face Cerulean inmates, a fate no prisoner wanted, especially one guilty of genocide. Ceruleans were a kind, peaceful people, but the few who snapped mentally were more vicious than a pissed-off zote. Keet wouldn’t last long in Purgatory 3.

Plus, Luna had seen a side of Bertha she had never known existed until now. The woman, who Luna had believed too conceited and self-serving to find love, had in fact found a man to fall in love with her, one who appeared to be wonderful. One who brought out the good qualities of Bertha.

The knowledge that a woman such as Bertha had discovered happiness and possessed good qualities bothered Luna. Luna was incapable of complex emotions. What would it be like for her if she could truly fall in love with someone? She shook her head in the darkness. As a fifty-fifty, a monogamous relationship was impossible. It seemed the only emotions Luna ever experienced were regret, sometimes panic, and her typical discomfort with emotional situations.

Luna had seen Pet’s determination to protect her and realized Pet truly considered her a friend. Hell, she considered Pet a friend, too, something Luna didn’t have outside of work. The friendship aspect often left her uncomfortable with Pet, but at least it was something real in her life.

She’d witnessed the slaughter of thousands of innocent people, a memory burned into her mind until the day she died. Pet’s comment to her after Keet’s arrest kept spinning around in her skull. Maybe one day Luna could let the incident at the Lightspeed Lounge go, but she couldn’t ignore the fact she’d lost her cool and people had died because of her.

And throughout the past several days with her companions, she’d also enjoyed many fucking sessions with Crack. She glanced over at the hulking black form next to her. She could wake him and screw right now if she wanted, but even with her inherent carnal desires, the need wasn’t there at the moment. What she felt now, what she’d been suffering all night, was a hollow, piercing pain beneath her breastbone mixed with a weird sense of panic she could not shake. Even a brief romp with Crack after he’d crawled into her bed earlier that night had done nothing to quiet the anxiety and discomfort roiling in her chest.

A sweet-sounding bell pealed in the air. Luna looked around as it kept chiming and finally realized it was a viscall in their cabin.

“Answer,” she said in a low tone, trying not to wake Crack.

Over the nightstand a shimmer occurred, then a screen solidified to hover over the tabletop. Stellarman’s image appeared.

“Agent Moonstone?”

She rose in the darkness and touched a sensor over the bed. Weak light fell over her.

“I’m here.”

“Sorry to disturb you, but I’m afraid I have to renege on that week off. I need you back on duty.”

“What’s going on?”

Stellarman looked at her with his usual stoic expression. “I’m not going to get into it through a viscall, but this case is dangerous. I need you to come into headquarters immediately. You’ll leave for Earth first thing in the morning.”

“I’ll wake Crack and Pet. We’ll head back as soon as we’re dressed.”

“Good. I’ll be waiting in my office.”

The viscall flashed, shimmered, then vanished. The screen dematerialized.

It was just as well she returned to work. Having time off would only let her thoughts drive her insane. A case would allow her something on which to focus.

Crack sat up and tossed the covers off. “Earth? I have never been there.”

“I grew up on the planet,” she replied. “My mother is still there.” She flipped the covers back and waved her hand over the sensor. Brighter light illuminated the cabin. “I guess it’s time I went back for a visit anyway.”

She rose and knocked on Pet’s adjoining door before stepping into her cabin. After waking her, Luna returned and donned her clothes. As she tugged on a boot, a revelation hit her.

Crater Bob would be on Earth.

But where on the blue swirled marble would he be staying? She had to talk to him, find out why he had intended on leaving without telling her goodbye. And she would ask him why he was refusing her sex after all the mind-blowing fucks they’d enjoyed with each other. Maybe, if she could face him and get some answers, it would stop the infernal pain that kept rendering her breathless.

Crack pulled on his clothes. For a few seconds, Luna admired the way his muscles rippled beneath the scarring pattern of flames up his left side. As he drew on his boots, he kept casting her dark looks.

“You intend to find that human guy, Bob,” he stated dully.

“So what?” She strapped on her gun belt. “I have some questions, and he has the answers.”

“Are you sure that is all it is?” His eyes glowed eerily in the light.

“Don’t get all possessive, Crack. You are my partner with a license to fuck, remember that.”

“How can I forget it? You will not let me.”

She stared hard at him. He glared back.

“Should I ask for a different partner?” she questioned. “If you’re developing emotions for me, it will only put a strain on our partnership and possibly put you in danger.”

At that, he blinked, sobering. “No, of course not.”

She slipped her weapon into its holder. “Then let’s go. We have a case to handle on Earth.”

In the corridor, she joined Pet, who stood waiting for them. They walked side by side with Crack following them and navigated the passages to the docks. Slowly, the pain tormenting Luna lessened. She drew in a deep breath then released it, grateful the sensation was easing.

Earth. The planet beckoned Luna. There she would find all her answers.